Michelangelo Artfully Hid a Brain Stem in God's Throat (1 Viewer)

[Hatuey]

Michelangelo Artfully Hid a Brain Stem in God's Throat - Yahoo! Canada News

Using a digital analysis, they compared the shadows outlining the features of God's neck and a photograph of a model of this section of the brain, which connects with the spinal cord, and found a close correspondence.

This is not the first anatomical image found hidden in the frescoes of the Sistine Chapel. In an article published in 1990, Frank Lynn Meshberger, a gynecologist, identified an outline of the human brain in the Creation of Adam. Among other details, he noted that the shroud surrounding God had the shape of the cerebrum, or the upper part of the brain. A decade later, another researcher pointed out a kidney motif.

"We speculated that having used the brain motif successfully in the Creation of Adam almost a year earlier, Michelangelo wanted to once again associate the figure of God with a brain motif in the iconographically critical Separation of Light from Darkness," wrote authors Ian Suk, a medical illustrator, and neurosurgeon Rafael Tamargo, both of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.

It doesn't seem implausible to me that somebody as ahead of his time as Michael Angelo would do something like this. Every day it seems like we figure out something these guys managed to sneak in without many people noticing. Whether this is real or not it puts a whole new meaning to the words 'God only exists in your mind'.

 

[Guy Incognito]

I don't buy it. It seems like a case of people just seeing what they want to see, like a picture in the clouds or something. I'm not saying that Michaelangelo didn't have enough knowledge of anatomy to do it, but it would be kind of a pointless exercise. A hidden brainstem in God's throat, is that supposed to represent something? Keep in mind, brains weren't really as significant back then as they were today, people associated thinking with other parts of the body like the heart. And even if it is a "brain motif," why a brainstem and not the whole brain? Why in the throat? What from that particular angle? It doesn't really look that much like a brainstem, anyway, it looks a lot more like, y'know, a throat. I think somebody's imagination just ran away with them.

 

[Objective Voice]

It's no secret Michelangelo studied human anatomy. I don't recall the name of the painting itself, but he did paint that portrait of a nude man w/out-stretched arms in the Jewish Star of David. It clearly showed the male human anatomy in great detail. Isn't it possible Michelangelo placed hidden parts of the human anatomy in this and other paintings?

All I'm saying is if the U.S. Treasury can put hidden images and/or symbols in our paper currency, isn't it possible a skilled, masterful artist like Michelangelo could paint a human brain stem in one of his most famous master pieces?

 

[Hoplite]

I don't buy it. It seems like a case of people just seeing what they want to see, like a picture in the clouds or something. I'm not saying that Michaelangelo didn't have enough knowledge of anatomy to do it, but it would be kind of a pointless exercise. A hidden brainstem in God's throat, is that supposed to represent something? Keep in mind, brains weren't really as significant back then as they were today, people associated thinking with other parts of the body like the heart. And even if it is a "brain motif," why a brainstem and not the whole brain? Why in the throat? What from that particular angle? It doesn't really look that much like a brainstem, anyway, it looks a lot more like, y'know, a throat. I think somebody's imagination just ran away with them.

I agree. While I do see where it could come in, I'm not confident it was intentional.

 

[Gardener]

Shouldn't that be "Michelangelo hid a Brain stem in God's throat artfully"?

 

[1069]

Michelangelo dissected cadavers, which was against the law and probably punishable by death.
Nobody was supposed to know what internal organs looked like.
Possibly, hiding anatomically-correct images of them in his paintings was merely an act of subversion; a "f*** you", in essence, to the authorities in the time and place he lived.

 

[Objective Voice]

1069,

Agreed.

 

[Guy Incognito]

Michelangelo dissected cadavers, which was against the law and probably punishable by death.
Nobody was supposed to know what internal organs looked like.
Possibly, hiding anatomically-correct images of them in his paintings was merely an act of subversion; a "f*** you", in essence, to the authorities in the time and place he lived.

That sounds like a lot of supposition and no facts to me. I mean, it's a nice story, but where is the evidence? I have wonder why it is that, if there really is this "brain motif" on the Sistine Chapel ceiling, it has only been noticed recently by a few doctors and medical scientists and somehow went unnoticed by generations of art historians.

 

[Hoplite]

That sounds like a lot of supposition and no facts to me. I mean, it's a nice story, but where is the evidence? I have wonder why it is that, if there really is this "brain motif" on the Sistine Chapel ceiling, it has only been noticed recently by a few doctors and medical scientists and somehow went unnoticed by generations of art historians.

In fairness, there is actual precedent. Michelangelo did hide little easter eggs in his artwork, especially in the Sistine Chapel. He hid people he didnt like in paintings of hell.

 

[Guy Incognito]

In fairness, there is actual precedent. Michelangelo did hide little easter eggs in his artwork, especially in the Sistine Chapel. He hid people he didnt like in paintings of hell.

That's a good point. I don't think this theory is impossible, and Michelangelo was definitely ahead of his time as far as anatomy is concerned. But in the absence of something to corroborate this (like an entry from his diary where he talks about sneaking brains into drawings, or maybe a sketchbook where he did a study of brainstems from a similar angle), it's just speculative at best. It's like the face on Mars, which just a natural formation of rocks that sort of looks like a face. It's telling that this is an idea proposed by a doctor and a medical illustrator, they just see shapes that they are familiar with.

 

[tryreading]

Michelangelo Artfully Hid a Brain Stem in God's Throat - Yahoo! Canada News

It doesn't seem implausible to me that somebody as ahead of his time as Michael Angelo would do something like this. Every day it seems like we figure out something these guys managed to sneak in without many people noticing. Whether this is real or not it puts a whole new meaning to the words 'God only exists in your mind'.

Watched this on PBS a while back. Some experts think Michaelangelo alttered sculptures years after he began them to make certain religious statements:

Michelangelo Revealed ~ Watch the Full Episode | Secrets of the Dead | PBS

 

[The Dane]

Michelangelo was a member of the Illuminati, a group of scientists and philosophers driven underground by the church's campaign against science. The church's banning of dissections hindered scientific process and by incorporating anatomical drawings in the very religious pieces he was commissioned to make he was intentionally slighting the Catholic church.

To Dr. Tamargo’s eye, God’s neck in the fresco is distinctly different from those of other figures depicted in more or less the same posture. Usually, the neck looks smooth, but in “The Separation of Light From Darkness” there are lines and shapes quite different from the normal external anatomy of the neck, irregularities that he believes cannot be accidental. “The anatomy of the neck is very, very unusual,” he said, and if it were not intentionally drawn that way, “you would have to postulate that Michelangelo had a very bad day, which is very unlikely because he was very meticulous.”

Suk and Tamargo appear to have done their homework well,” said Gail L. Geiger, a professor of art history at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. “I find the core of their piece quite convincing.”

 

[Hoplite]

Michelangelo was a member of the Illuminati, a group of scientists and philosophers driven underground by the church's campaign against science.

Lets not get all Dan Brown on this.

 

[Wiseone]

Isn't Michaelangelo the one with the nun-chucks?

 

[Guy Incognito]

Isn't Michaelangelo the one with the nun-chucks?

 

[Aunt Spiker]

Why are they assuming it was suppose to be a 'brain stem'

If he dissected cadavers and made efforts to make things extremely realistic then doesn't it make more sense that it *was the throat* - which, to me, is just common sense to good, realistic artistry?

It really seems as if he gave god a very masculine and 'rugged/cut' overall body - and a pronounced jawline is just reminiscent of that.

 

[Aunt Spiker]

Web Gallery of Art, image collection, virtual museum, searchable database of European fine arts (1000-1850) is a huge, virtual online art gallery - lots of his sculptures and paintings which share this same neck feature.