“Michelangelo, who had already spent much time studying Roman architecture in the ruins, proposed a revolutionary “flying bow bridge” scaffold. It was… — Benjamin Blech Copy Share Image
“Codes proved their value many times over in wartime. Far less obvious, though, is the way hidden messages found a place in… — Benjamin Blech Copy Share Image
“Historians are fairly certain that Buonarroti spent much time in the Jewish parts of Rome, using the authentic features of real Jews… — Benjamin Blech Copy Share Image
“Whoever’s idea it was, the new Palatine Chapel was designed to replace the ancient Jewish Temple as the New Holy Temple of… — Benjamin Blech Copy Share Image
“Evil can be destroyed in either direction. Some are meant to be cast down. Others rise, but their elevation is meant to… — Benjamin Blech Copy Share Image
“Our first clue, included in each of the Sistine portraits of the sibyls and prophets—save one—is a scroll or a book, symbolizing… — 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
