Sistine chapel Quote by William Edgar

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

— Benjamin Blech

“In Jewish tradition, we find the cautionary adage “Be in the world, but not of the world.” In the Gospels, Jesus says: “Render unto…

— Benjamin Blech

“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

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

— Benjamin Blech

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

— Benjamin Blech

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

— Benjamin Blech

“Michelangelo proposed to the pope that he make a large copy of the Pantheon dome on top of the new St. Peter’s. The horrified…

— 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, Michelangelo was…

— Benjamin Blech

“It is likely that this very maelstrom of conflicted impulses is what has foiled all previous attempts to come up with a “unified theory”…

— Benjamin Blech

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

— Benjamin Blech

“I am sure that it was only because Michael Angelo was engaged in the ancient and honourable occupation of lying in bed that he…

— G.K. Chesterton

The Creator made Italy from designs by Michelangelo.

— Mark Twain