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  hereinstead.com: michelangelo does god







The next gallary contains Michelangelo's amazing pictures of God from the ceiling of the Sistene Chapel. We at hereinstead.com have long been big fans of Michelangelo's work, especially his representations of famous Jewish men such as Moses and David.

Because of the Second Commandment ban on images, the really religious Jews, of course, did not do any scultures or paintings of God. Muhammad also took the Ten Commandments (and the whole Bible) very seriously, and so Islam still uses only geometric patterns in its religious archicture and decorative arts. That leaves the Christians. They certainly carved and painted lots of images of Jesus and other sacred people. But the Christians also overwhelmingly respected the Second Commandment prohibition on images of what Gore Vidal has called "the sky-god."

But come on, somebody's got to do God's portrait! And by the middle of the 15th century the pressure must have been immense. One thousand five hundred years and no pictures of the main man? And that's not even counting the extra thousand Jewish-only years. Further, it was clear by then that Islam could create a brilliant civilization, but it was never going to do God's portrait.

So there they are in the middle of the Renaissance, rediscovering humanism. There they are rediscovering Greek philosophy, literature and theatre; rediscovering Arabian science, mathematics, and philosophy; rediscovering the enormous powers of human creativity. The Church was part of all that, and besides they've got artists making astonishing sculptures and even some paintings.

It was clear even then that Michelangelo -- a sculptor who also painted -- was the best of the best. Leonardo was a unbelievable genius, Donatelo was divine, and Raphael was awesome, but Michelangelo was even better. He was the greatest graphic artist -- sculptor and painter -- who ever lived. And they knew it.

So ... the Pope commissoned Michelangelo for the job of doing God's portrait. In effect, the Pope hired the Michael Jordon of art to paint God's portrait. And we should all be grateful.

But poor Michelangelo had to suffer if he was to have this honor....

[To be continued.......]


click below to go to
"Michelangelo Does God"









hereinstead.com

the electric library of hgl  |  drug prohibition studies  |  pastrami land  |  videos shmideos  |  against monotheism  |  poetry page  |  writingdance  |  lindesmith award speech  |  good-bye Mr. Vonnegut  |  the marijuana arrest epidemic in New York City  |  drug policy  |  alcohol studies  |  here as well  |  regard yourself as a writer  |  n.y. jews and chinese food  |  joe gusfield and cubist sociology  |  ralph nader as suicide bomber  |  hgl at age 12  |  Meet the
Social Justice Libertarians
 |  paul krugman  |  dave barry on roger & elaine  |  friends and family  |  pomo's of noho  |  the war on treyf  |  art gallery  |  Menand on Pinker  |  the funny pages  |  mark twain on james f. cooper  |  the miserable louis althusser  |  automato