“How to maintain the proper mood and not bore the congregation to sleep? Art was the answer. But not just pretty pictures… — Benjamin Blech Copy Share Image
“Almost exactly five hundred years ago, a tormented soul named Michelangelo built a very narrow bridge in the middle of the air… — Benjamin Blech Copy Share Image
“If an artist of the caliber of Leonardo or Michelangelo was paid a hefty commission for a new private piece of art,… — Benjamin Blech Copy Share Image
“In 1510 the pope ordered the scaffolding dismantled and the first part of the fresco displayed to an eager public. The ecstatic… — Benjamin Blech Copy Share Image
“sit well with Michelangelo. The project seemed like a series of insurmountable challenges: •It would be the largest fresco on earth—there would… — Benjamin Blech Copy Share Image
“In a world without cable channels and satellite television, videos and DVDs, movies and the Internet, an artist’s creation was the one… — Benjamin Blech Copy Share Image
“What this lone artist wanted to do was construct a giant bridge of the spirit, spanning different faiths, cultures, eras, and sexualities.” — Benjamin Blech Copy Share Image
“This had to be kept secret, of course, since only Catholic artists were allowed to work inside the Vatican, and especially in… — Benjamin Blech Copy Share Image
“Still, the rebellious artist had placed a minor Jewish prophet in the important spot where the pope had wanted Jesus. How did… — Benjamin Blech Copy Share Image
“Art—at least great art—by its very nature has varying levels, or layers, of meaning. In fact, a masterpiece comes to be considered… — Benjamin Blech Copy Share Image
“Yet, to view the Sistine primarily as a self-portrait doesn’t ring totally true. In spite of his arrogance regarding his artistic skill,… — Benjamin Blech Copy Share Image
“Just as Shakespeare filled his works with straightforward storylines, sex, violence, and bawdy jokes for the “groundlings” (the uneducated peasants who stood… — Benjamin Blech Copy Share Image
“So what was Michelangelo’s real message? “SELF-PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST”? A more profound and legitimate explanation of the Sistine is that perhaps… — Benjamin Blech Copy Share Image
“In essence, Ficino’s philosophy elevated the liberal arts, pure scientific research, and the centrality of the individual and his or her immortal… — Benjamin Blech Copy Share Image
“If an artist of the caliber of Leonardo or Michelangelo was paid a hefty commission for a new private piece of art, that artwork… — Benjamin Blech Copy Share Image
“The Florentine public didn’t care. When the full-sized preparatory cartoons were displayed, the entire city went into ecstasy over both works. This was the… — Benjamin Blech Copy Share Image
“The floor is a fifteenth-century revival of medieval Cosmatesque mosaic style. The Cosmati family developed their unmistakable technique in Rome in the twelfth and… — Benjamin Blech Copy Share Image
“Carafa, as Pope Paul IV, established the Index of Forbidden Books, banned all women from entering the Vatican, burnt volumes of Talmud and Kabbalah,… — Benjamin Blech Copy Share Image
“The Vatican preached that because the Jews had killed Jesus and rejected his teachings they were punished with the loss of their Holy Temple… — Benjamin Blech Copy Share Image
“The Jew cannot accept the New Testament since it is the words of one man intended to undo what the Creator had shared with… — Benjamin Blech Copy Share Image
“THE VATICAN The very name Vatican comes from a surprising source. It is neither Latin nor Greek, nor is it of biblical origin. In… — Benjamin Blech Copy Share Image
“Buonarroti was later given the job of designing the huge dome of the new Basilica of St. Peter. It is well known how much… — Benjamin Blech Copy Share Image
“How to maintain the proper mood and not bore the congregation to sleep? Art was the answer. But not just pretty pictures that required… — Benjamin Blech Copy Share Image
“Yet another strategy for encoding in Renaissance works involved environmental “special effects.” Messages were ingeniously inserted so that they could be viewed only when… — Benjamin Blech Copy Share Image
“But last and least known is its additional purpose as a Kabbalistic meditational device that thus, in one more way, links it to ancient… — Benjamin Blech Copy Share Image
“Thus, Michelangelo filled the chapel with hidden messages of his passionate loves and his righteous rages, along with mystic symbols of divine justice and… — Benjamin Blech Copy Share Image
