Cheeky Michaelangelo Stuffs Man-Brain Down God's Throat?
Offline Michelangelo's secret message in the Sistine Chapel: A juxtaposition of God and the human brain
At the age of 17 he began dissecting corpses from the church graveyard. Between the years 1508 and 1512 he painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Rome. Michelangelo Buonarroti—known by his first name the world over as the singular artistic genius, sculptor and architect—was also an anatomist, a secret he concealed by destroying almost all of his anatomical sketches and notes. Now, 500 years after he drew them, his hidden anatomical illustrations have been found—painted on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, cleverly concealed from the eyes of Pope Julius II and countless religious worshipers, historians, and art lovers for centuries—inside the body of God.
This is the conclusion of Ian Suk and Rafael Tamargo, in their paper in the May 2010 issue of the scientific journal Neurosurgery. Suk and Tamargo are experts in neuroanatomy at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland. In 1990, physician Frank Meshberger published a paper in the Journal of the American Medical Association deciphering Michelangelo’s imagery with the stunning recognition that the depiction in God Creating Adam in the central panel on the ceiling was a perfect anatomical illustration of the human brain in cross section. Meshberger speculates that Michelangelo surrounded God with a shroud representing the human brain to suggest that God was endowing Adam not only with life, but also with supreme human intelligence. Now in another panel The Separation of Light from Darkness (shown at left), Suk and Tamargo have found more. Leading up the center of God’s chest and forming his throat, the researchers have found a precise depiction of the human spinal cord and brain stem.
Is the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel a 500 year-old puzzle that is only now beginning to be solved? What was Michelangelo saying by construction the voice box of God out of the brain stem of man? Is it a sacrilege or homage?
It took Michelangelo four years to complete the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. He proceeded from east to west, starting from the entrance of the Chapel to finish above the altar. The last panel he painted depicts God separating light from darkness. This is where the researchers report that Michelangelo hid the human brain stem, eyes and optic nerve of man inside the figure of God directly above the altar.
Art critics and historians have long puzzled over the odd anatomical irregularities in Michelangelo’s depiction of God’s neck in this panel, and by the discordant lighting in the region. The figures in the fresco are illuminated diagonally from the lower left, but God’s neck, highlighted as if in a spotlight, is illuminated straight-on and slightly from the right. How does one reconcile such clumsiness by the world’s master of human anatomy and skilled portrayer of light with bungling the image of God above the altar? Suk and Tamargo propose that the hideous goiter-disfigured neck of God is not a mistake, but rather a hidden message. They argue that nowhere else in any of the other figures did Michelangelo foul up his anatomically correct rendering of the human neck.
They show that if one superimposes a detail of God’s odd lumpy neck in the Separation of Light and Darkness on a photograph of the human brain as seen from below, the lines of God’s neck trace precisely the features of the human brain [see images at right].
There is something else odd about this picture. A role of fabric extends up the center of God’s robe in a peculiar manner. The clothing is bunched up here as is seen nowhere else, and the fold clashes with what would be the natural drape of fabric over God’s torso. In fact, they observe, it is the human spinal cord, ascending to the brain stem in God’s neck. At God’s waist, the robe twists again in a peculiar crumpled manner, revealing the optic nerves from two eyes, precisely as Leonardo Da Vinci had shown them in his illustration of 1487. Da Vinci and Michelangelo were contemporaries and acquainted with each other’s work.
The mystery is whether these neuroanatomical features are hidden messages or whether the Sistine Chapel a Rorshach tests upon which anyone can extract an image that is meaningful to themselves. The authors of the paper are, after all, neuroanatomists. The neuroanatomy they see on the ceiling may be nothing more than the man on the moon.
But Michelangelo also depicted other anatomical features elsewhere in the ceiling, according to other scholars; notably the kidney, which was familiar to Michelangelo and was of special interest to him as he suffered from kidney stones.
If the hidden figures are intentional, what do they mean? The authors resist speculation, but a great artist does not merely reproduce an object in a work of art, he or she evokes meaning through symbolism. Is Separation of Light from Darkness an artistic comment on the enduring clash between science and religion? Recall that this was the age when the monk Copernicus was denounced by the Church for theorizing that the Earth revolved around the sun. It was a period of struggle between scientific observation and the authority of the Church, and a time of intense conflict between Protestants and Catholics.
It is no secret that Michelangelo’s relationship with the Catholic Church became strained. The artist was a simple man, but he grew to detest the opulence and corruption of the Church. In two places in the masterpiece, Michelangelo left self portraits—both of them depicting himself in torture. He gave his own face to Saint Bartholomew’s body martyred by being skinned alive, and to the severed head of Holofernes, who was seduced and beheaded by Judith.
Michelangelo was a devout person, but later in life he developed a belief in Spiritualism, for which he was condemned by Pope Paul IV. The fundamental tenant of Spiritualism is that the path to God can be found not exclusively through the Church, but through direct communication with God. Pope Paul IV interpreted Michelangelo’s Last Judgment, painted on the wall of the Sistine Chapel 20 years after completing the ceiling, as defaming the church by suggesting that Jesus and those around him communicated with God directly without need of Church. He suspended Michelangelo’s pension and had fig leaves painted over the nudes in the fresco. According to the artist’s wishes, Michelangelo’s body is not buried on the grounds of the Vatican, but is instead interred in a tomb in Florence.
Perhaps the meaning in the Sistine Chapel is not of God giving intelligence to Adam, but rather that intelligence and observation and the bodily organ that makes them possible lead without the necessity of Church directly to God. The material is rich for speculation and the new findings will doubtlessly spark endless interpretation. We may never know the truth, but in Separation of Light from Darkness, Michelangelo’s masterpiece combines the worlds of art, religion, science, and faith in a provocative and awe inspiring work of art, which may also be a mirror.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?id=michelangelos-secret-message-in-the-2010-05-26
"Experiments are the only means of knowledge at our disposal. The rest is poetry, imagination." Max Planck
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http://www.amazon.com/Sistine-Secrets-Michelangelos-Forbidden-Messages/dp/B001OW5OSQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1275320342&sr=...
The Sistine Secrets: Michelanglo's Forbidden Messages in the Heart of the Vatican by Blech and Doliner
I think they missed the anatomical references, but it has been awhile since I read the book.
-- I feel so much better since I stopped trying to believe.
"We are entitled to our own opinions. We're not entitled to our own facts"- Al Franken
"If death isn't sweet oblivion, I will be severely disappointed" - Ruth M.
And sometimes a painting is just a painting. While it may be true that Michelangelo, like many progressives during the middle ages, sought ways to hint at or imply the reality as they saw it at the time, I don't think we today need to assume the same conspiracy crap that JFK and Mayan fans do.
I looked at the pictures posted here and it seems the fans of this are doing what the author did, retrofitting after the fact. I see nothing brain like in the painting. I do see people here finding shapes in the clouds because they want to see it.
I remember a few years back people claiming to see the pope in a bonfire.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/buzz/Pope_Fire/the_pope_bonfire
John Stewart poked fun of that pick and if I remember correctly also put Travolta in "Saturday Night Fever" next to the same photo.
I think people see what they want to see with this.
"We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus -- and nonbelievers."Obama
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And take note of the detail of the face and nose. If Michelangelo had the intent of depicting a brain certainly he could have done as much of a detailed job as he did with the face and nose. The "alleged" brain looks nothing like the brain in B. Michelangelo was a master of detail. If that was his intent he would have done a much better job than that.
I am surprised that some would look for faces in grilled cheese sandwiches on this board.
"We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus -- and nonbelievers."Obama
Check out my poetry here on Rational Responders Like my poetry thread on Facebook under Brian James Rational Poet, @Brianrrs37 on Twitter and my blog at www.brianjamesrationalpoet.blog
And if we go by the overlay if you look closely enough you can find a midget too.
"We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus -- and nonbelievers."Obama
Check out my poetry here on Rational Responders Like my poetry thread on Facebook under Brian James Rational Poet, @Brianrrs37 on Twitter and my blog at www.brianjamesrationalpoet.blog
And another thing. I don't know the history of medical science. But I do know that the mass population of the world falsely believed that the heart, not the brain, did the thinking. Do we have LAGIT medical historians here who can tell us when the scientific community discovered the function of the human brain?
Seeing something doesn't mean you know what it is. The Ancient Egyptians saw the real sun every day, but also falsely assumed that it was a thinking being.
People especially in all human wars in our species history would have seen slaughtered bodies and busted skulls. Saying Michelangelo studied the anatomy of the brain didn't mean he knew what it's function was. Anymore than he could have known what sperm was simply by jacking off.
What I see in the painting without the overlay is a neck, nothing more. The overlay is nothing more than seeing shapes in the clouds.
"We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus -- and nonbelievers."Obama
Check out my poetry here on Rational Responders Like my poetry thread on Facebook under Brian James Rational Poet, @Brianrrs37 on Twitter and my blog at www.brianjamesrationalpoet.blog
Well Brian, I am onboard with you are far as people seeing what they want to see.
As far as your question of medical history, the fact that the brain is what does your thinking was proved in 1848 when Phineas Gage accidentally lobotomozed himself in a blasting accident and survived, albeit with a major change in personality.
I believe that the matter had been suspected prior to that based on evidence such as autopsies of stroke victims but I could not tell you when it became a matter for serious discussion.
One minor nit though, the biblical authority as exists connects the soul to the lungs.
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It doesn't look just like a brain, Brian, but it doesn't look like a perfect Adam's apple either. You'd agree it would have to be a little bit hidden or it would be obvious so it couldn't be photographic without resulting in an uproar. In truth it looks a bit like goolies to me. In any case, the possibility some one sneakily flipped the bird in vatican central is worth its salt to me. Of course, this comes from a man who as a 15yo once tucked the contents of a large box of playboy magazines he found in the church recycling bin into the pew backs of the Cronulla Presbyterian Church early one Sunday morning...several months after their discovery, of course...
"Experiments are the only means of knowledge at our disposal. The rest is poetry, imagination." Max Planck
No I am saying that conspiracies are not earth shattering. I doubt very seriously he had any intent or knowledge for that matter of knowing what the human brain did. Even if I agreed,which I dont, that he put it in there. It looks like a throat and a bearded chin.
I think it is much more reasonable that people see what they want to see. I saw a midget in the overlay, does that mean he intended for me to see a midget? He must have known about Gary Colman because he put a midget in the painting.
It looks like a throat and chin and people are merely looking for shapes in the clouds because they want to see them.
"We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus -- and nonbelievers."Obama
Check out my poetry here on Rational Responders Like my poetry thread on Facebook under Brian James Rational Poet, @Brianrrs37 on Twitter and my blog at www.brianjamesrationalpoet.blog
And if you want to see an open pussy you can find it there too. I just looked at it again and thought that too. Look down at the alleged "brain stem" it looks like the vagina with the urethra exposed.
"We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus -- and nonbelievers."Obama
Check out my poetry here on Rational Responders Like my poetry thread on Facebook under Brian James Rational Poet, @Brianrrs37 on Twitter and my blog at www.brianjamesrationalpoet.blog
of course but it's also true artists are prone to subtlety. I think it's possible the underpaid crank M'angelo sneakily scored a point against the church. But who knows. I thought your earlier point relating to the midget was possible and it looked to me like he was chucking a browneye.
"Experiments are the only means of knowledge at our disposal. The rest is poetry, imagination." Max Planck
i don't know about a brain, but god has an obvious set of tits.
i think that'd be more up the alley of a pissed off tuscan.
"I have never felt comfortable around people who talk about their feelings for Jesus, or any other deity for that matter, because they are usually none too bright. . . . Or maybe 'stupid' is a better way of saying it; but I have never seen much point in getting heavy with either stupid people or Jesus freaks, just as long as they don't bother me. In a world as weird and cruel as this one we have made for ourselves, I figure anybody who can find peace and personal happiness without ripping off somebody else deserves to be left alone. They will not inherit the earth, but then neither will I. . . . And I have learned to live, as it were, with the idea that I will never find peace and happiness, either. But as long as I know there's a pretty good chance I can get my hands on either one of them every once in a while, I do the best I can between high spots."
--Hunter S. Thompson
The painting does have strange features, but the attempt to see a human brain there is complete crap.
Favorite oxymorons: Gospel Truth, Rational Supernaturalist, Business Ethics, Christian Morality
"Theology is now little more than a branch of human ignorance. Indeed, it is ignorance with wings." - Sam Harris
The path to Truth lies via careful study of reality, not the dreams of our fallible minds - me
From the sublime to the ridiculous: Science -> Philosophy -> Theology
Beings who deserve worship don't demand it. Beings who demand worship don't deserve it.
Why don't you give me a "reading" and tell me why I found a midget in the painting and a vagina in the panting?
It is supposed to be what the conspiracy theorist told you what they wanted you to see. IT WAS A VAGINA! VAGINA'S EXIST, WHY CANT YOU SEE THE VAGINA? ARE YOU SAYING THAT MIKE NEVER FUCKED A WOMAN?
It is crap, that's it. If you are going to give any of this credibility, pick up a bible and believe it, all of it.
"We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus -- and nonbelievers."Obama
Check out my poetry here on Rational Responders Like my poetry thread on Facebook under Brian James Rational Poet, @Brianrrs37 on Twitter and my blog at www.brianjamesrationalpoet.blog
The images in the OP do not match the way they try to claim.
If you think they do, that would be consistent with your demonstrated 'ability' to see what you expect to see (or hear, or feel, or sense) whatever you expect to in any phenomena, and so help to convince yourself you have evidence for your woo ideas.
EDIT: The tendency to see what you expect to see, or to find patterns in virtually random perceptions, is a very well established feature of human perception. We understand in broad terms why it would be selected for in evolution - it is safer to run away from anything that might be a lion than wait to check. It also allowed us to find food that is partly concealed by foilage, even if we are mistaken sometimes.
Favorite oxymorons: Gospel Truth, Rational Supernaturalist, Business Ethics, Christian Morality
"Theology is now little more than a branch of human ignorance. Indeed, it is ignorance with wings." - Sam Harris
The path to Truth lies via careful study of reality, not the dreams of our fallible minds - me
From the sublime to the ridiculous: Science -> Philosophy -> Theology
At the risk of pulling a "Sam Harris" using bad language throwing a bone to the woo lovers, I will say this.
IF IF IF IF IF IF IF IF IF, Micheal Angelo did anything all he did was make a guess, IF we are going by the brain conspiracy nuts here.
The closest I could come, WHICH I DONT' by far BY ANY STRETCH, would say if we are to presume "he knew something" would be in the same context that Roddenbery imagined a tri-corder.
It may have been that he equated his eyes and mouth and communication as being at the closest to where the information was coming in. BUT HE HAD NO WAY OF KNOWING at the time. Just like Roddenbery had no way of knowing that a phone could have eventually be hand held.
If we look at all the guesses humans make that are wrong compared to the ones that are right, most of the time we get it wrong. Michael Angleo, like Roddenbery made depictions of things and characters that will never be true no matter how much we like their art. AND NEITHER OF THEM could have known what they were postulating at the time. Saying the sky is blue, doesn't mean you know why it is blue.
I do NOT think he intended us to see a brain or brain stem. I find that absurd solely based on viewing his actual paintings.
But I would no more conclude that he knew what the brain did AT THAT TIME than I would conclude that Henry Ford could build a modern Lamborghini BACK THEN just because he observed combustion engines.
It would NOT shock me that he looked at the human body. But the painting theory claiming he knew the function of the brain is ABSURD!
"We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus -- and nonbelievers."Obama
Check out my poetry here on Rational Responders Like my poetry thread on Facebook under Brian James Rational Poet, @Brianrrs37 on Twitter and my blog at www.brianjamesrationalpoet.blog
I always suspected "God" was a construct of the Human Brain. I am probably different from most of you in that I believe there is a congenital, instinctual component to most theistic beliefs.
Strike that...
One brain alone can't event a god; it requires the collabrative work of several minds operating cooperatively (often through 'spiritual' trades of sorts, at least before the advent of metal working) to produce a pantheon of some sort or another.
“A meritocratic society is one in which inequalities of wealth and social position solely reflect the unequal distribution of merit or skills amongst human beings, or are based upon factors beyond human control, for example luck or chance. Such a society is socially just because individuals are judged not by their gender, the colour of their skin or their religion, but according to their talents and willingness to work, or on what Martin Luther King called 'the content of their character'. By extension, social equality is unjust because it treats unequal individuals equally.” "Political Ideologies" by Andrew Heywood (2003)
I would like to point out that this isn't the only place such things occur in Mickey's works, and that Mickey actually did quite a bit of dissection in his day. Nor is Mickey alone in this, as the article AE posted points out Leo and the other Ninja Turtles did similar things.
Furthermore, some Ancient Greeks considered the brain to be the location of the mind and given that Mickey grew up in the renaissance and was trained by humanists, who were busy relearning all the kick-ass old Greek Stuff, it is not impossible that he was exposed to this theory and took a liking to it. In addition, it would be within the century, and even within Mickey's own life, that Vesalius would publish his De Corporis Fabrica, and would conclude that nerves, yes nerves, transmitted sensation, and stemmed from the brain, which he would draw an extremely accurate illustration of.
Quite frankly, to speak of this as if it is completely and totally beyond the possible abilities of Michelangelo and his contemporaries is far far far far far FAR more insulting to them than me abbreviating Mickey's name. You underestimate how knowledgeable they actually were. Its possible, given how much anatomy he studied and how brilliant he was at what he did with that knowledge, that the only reason it wasn't Mickey publishing landmark biology treatises is because he had more fun banging away at big ass rocks than he did drawing pretty pictures and writing stuff about said pretty pictures.
@Kapkao: That's actually one possible reason for Mickey doing this, is to try and say that god exists within the human mind/imagination. It is well known that Mickey had no love for the church and especially hated the Pope, enough that he painted himself flicking off said Pope at least once, but whether or not he actually disbelieved in god or just felt that humans could contact god through their own thoughts, or any possible number of other things, remains a mystery. Personally, given his later spiritualism and rejection of church authority over the intercession between man and god, I think he felt man could talk to god through thought, and was also just trying to be a dick and actively make fun of the catholic church in their most famous cathedral, which is a cause I think everyone can get behind.
When you say it like that you make it sound so Sinister...
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During my today's fat-shedding session of workout I listened to the latest podcast Skeptic's guide to the universe ('Your Escape To Reality', God knows I need it) #263. (July 29 2010) And my just-after-RRS skeptical heroes had there their regular part of Science OR Fiction. There were three scientific news, and one of them fiction. People tried to guess which one it is. And surprisingly, Michalangelo's brain stem on our Lord creator's throat was presented as a FACT. They said it was somehow proven by analysis of paint layers showing that the pattern was laid down deliberately, and that some neurologist(s) identified it...
Well, I don't remember exactly, the workout machine was making these creaky sounds and I might overhear some specifics. But I think you skeptics might be glad to know. You can find the episode here: http://www.theskepticsguide.org/archive/podcast.aspx
Beings who deserve worship don't demand it. Beings who demand worship don't deserve it.