Artist Quotes by Benjamin Blech

“With his genius, Michelangelo built many bridges of the spirit.”

— Benjamin Blech

“Very often, the title given to an artwork is the key to unlocking its hidden meanings. For”

— Benjamin Blech

“Michelangelo was aiming with his frescoes, we modestly suggest that if he had dared to give the giant artwork a title he…

— Benjamin Blech

“Almost exactly five hundred years ago, a tormented soul named Michelangelo built a very narrow bridge in the middle of the air…

— Benjamin Blech

“Somewhat similar is another effect called anamorphosis. This is an amazing technique that makes an image literally “morph” into another shape or…

— Benjamin Blech

“Michelangelo’s genius was in allowing the viewer to see a great deal—in order not to show what is best left secret, except…

— Benjamin Blech

“Let’s start with Michelangelo’s predecessors. What did they want the chapel to say, and what relevance, if any, do these ideas still…

— Benjamin Blech

“What this lone artist wanted to do was construct a giant bridge of the spirit, spanning different faiths, cultures, eras, and sexualities.”

— Benjamin Blech

“Their love, however, was the epitome of what we today would label “platonic.” They loved each other’s minds. Michelangelo was thrilled to…

— Benjamin Blech

“In his last years, Michelangelo worked on new pietà sculptures—not for any pope, but for his own diversion and probably for his…

— Benjamin Blech

“Michelangelo then summarily fired his Roman staff of assistants. He next sent for five longtime friends, all artists with experience in fresco…

— Benjamin Blech

“The ambitious pope had already discussed the Sistine ceiling with Michelangelo in 1506, probably while they were together in Bologna. No doubt…

— Benjamin Blech

“This had to be kept secret, of course, since only Catholic artists were allowed to work inside the Vatican, and especially in…

— Benjamin Blech

“To assess the success of the Sistine, we must think in terms of its history, its prime architects, and its contemporary relevance.…

— Benjamin Blech

“Yet another strategy for encoding in Renaissance works involved environmental “special effects.” Messages were ingeniously inserted so that they could be viewed…

— Benjamin Blech

“How to maintain the proper mood and not bore the congregation to sleep? Art was the answer. But not just pretty pictures…

— Benjamin Blech

“Faced with the enormous insult of his burial in Rome, the citizens of Florence finally realized their cultural and spiritual debt to…

— Benjamin Blech

“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

“Still, the rebellious artist had placed a minor Jewish prophet in the important spot where the pope had wanted Jesus. How did…

— Benjamin Blech

“Leonardo da Vinci and the much younger Michelangelo had often made it clear that they had no respect for each other’s craft.…

— Benjamin Blech

“What is this plan, then? What does the great ceiling really mean? To understand it fully, we have to experience it the…

— Benjamin Blech

“the original commission for the ceiling was a plan designed by the pope and his closest advisers. Jesus was to have been…

— Benjamin Blech

“Very often, the title given to an artwork is the key to unlocking its hidden meanings. For example, for centuries no one…

— Benjamin Blech

“The Florentine public didn’t care. When the full-sized preparatory cartoons were displayed, the entire city went into ecstasy over both works. This…

— Benjamin Blech

“Leonardo da Vinci, was brought to the Vatican in 1513 by the new pope, Leo X, and given a list of commissions…

— Benjamin Blech

“SUCCESS, IT HAS OFTEN BEEN SAID, means different things to different people. Measured by the throngs of visitors who are moved to…

— Benjamin Blech

“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

“expensive paint jobs in history. Michelangelo began at the top of the wall and slowly worked his way down for more than…

— Benjamin Blech

“If an artist of the caliber of Leonardo or Michelangelo was paid a hefty commission for a new private piece of art,…

— Benjamin Blech

“He hauled in Michelangelo, commanding the aged maestro to make the naked figures in The Last Judgment “suitable” for the papal chapel.…

— Benjamin Blech

“Thus, Michelangelo filled the chapel with hidden messages of his passionate loves and his righteous rages, along with mystic symbols of divine…

— Benjamin Blech

“What, then, is the unifying theme, if any, of these four different corner panels that might account for their selection by Michelangelo?…

— Benjamin Blech

“Michelangelo knew that for the Church to fulfill the will of God, it had to become a paradigm of true brotherhood. There…

— Benjamin Blech

“The goal was to teach and spiritually transform its viewers. But in what way? We have already unveiled many of the artist’s…

— Benjamin Blech

“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

“In 1510 the pope ordered the scaffolding dismantled and the first part of the fresco displayed to an eager public. The ecstatic…

— Benjamin Blech

“When Michelangelo came along a generation after the original fresco masters, he took on the almost-impossible task of linking the whole Sistine…

— Benjamin Blech

“Michelangelo, who had already spent much time studying Roman architecture in the ruins, proposed a revolutionary “flying bow bridge” scaffold. It was…

— Benjamin Blech

“Leonardo was renowned as a painter, and Michelangelo (thanks to his Battle of the Centaurs and the David) was known for portraying…

— Benjamin Blech

“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