Hidden in the Sistine Chapel Painting did Michelangelo Equate God to Science?

Johns Hopkins researchers have discovered an anatomically correct bottom up view of a brainstem in the part of the Sistine Chapel painting called the Separation of Light From Darkness. It is in god's neck in the painting. This would make the 'Light' a brain and associate it with science.

It seems that Michelangelo did this intentionally in that god's neck in the painting contains abnormalities that he was too talented and too knowledgeable to have painted hap hazardly:

Although the vast majority of subjects in this painting are considered anatomically correct, art historians and scholars have long debated the meaning of some anatomical peculiarities seen on God's neck in the part of the painting known as Separation of Light From Darkness. In this image, the neck appears lumpy, and God's beard awkwardly curls upward around his jaw.

"Michelangelo definitely knew how to depict necks—he knew anatomy so well," says Rafael Tamargo, M.D., a professor in the Department of Neurosurgery at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. "That's why it was such a mystery why this particular neck looked so odd."

Moreover, hidden in the same picture of god the researchers found an anatomically correct spinal chord that was properly proportioned and located:

The structure has the right placement, shape, and size to be a spinal cord, say the researchers, suggesting another piece of hidden anatomy in the artwork.
 
This is not the first empirical suggestion that Michelangelo associated god with the brain and science in the painting of the Sistine Chapel. In 1990 Dr. Frank Lynn Meshberger, an obstetrician in India, published a paper contending that the shroud surrounding the the image known as the Creation of Adam strongly resembled an anatomically correct brain.

The Johns Hopkins researchers represent what might be the best medical school in the world. Per Wikipedia (Ranking and Reputation):

Hopkins has consistently been the nation's number one medical school in the amount of competitive research grants awarded by the National Institutes of Health. Its major teaching hospital, The Johns Hopkins Hospital, has been ranked as the best hospital in the United States every year since 1992 by U.S. News and World Report[4] Askmen.com lists an M.D. from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine as one of the five most prestigious degrees in the world.[5]

The Johns Hopkins researchers are continuing their investigation.

Tags: Jubinsky, Michelangelo, Painting, Sistine

Views: 13

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by The Big Blue Frog on August 5, 2010 at 9:59am
I've seen the painting, and the overlay of the brain stem. I'm skeptical. (Who would have guessed?)

When I compare the two, it looks like wishful thinking. If it is a brain stem, it's possible that Michelangelo wasn't even aware that he was painting that shape, in the same way that most artists unconsciously duplicate their own features when painting portraits of others.
Permalink Reply by Rob van Senten on August 5, 2010 at 10:12am
I'm skeptical

Ditto, and since Michelangelo is dead it's an unprovable assertion.
Skepticism seems to be the proper stance on this subject.
Permalink Reply by John Jubinsky on August 5, 2010 at 10:22am
You are saying that a painter as talented as Michelangelo under the scrutiny of the church would not have noticed that he had painted god's neck conspicuously out of proportion.
Permalink Reply by D.O.S on August 5, 2010 at 11:00am
He may have been a great painter but he was still Human. We make mistakes. Considering the pressure he must have been under I'm surprised there aren't more. At the scale he was painting you'd think things would be obvious but they really are not.

In the end what difference would it really make whether it was intentional or accidental. One person's views on religion are not that significant (unless the individual is in a position to alter and/or creat doctrine or policy)
Permalink Reply by Claudia M. Mazzucco on August 5, 2010 at 11:45am
Michelangelo was genius. His imagination had the task of reproducing and manipulating symbolic images. The capability of symbolic thinking is not, however, conscious, although it may carry content for consciousness and may be in part instrumental for translating conscious intentions into action.

In order to conceptualize his experience of God, he used both imagination and reason.

In Michelangelo’s scheme of things, reason can allow progress through various levels of understanding and can finally lead to God, the ultimate truth. This is why it is important to gain knowledge and develops a theory of knowledge based on four faculties:

1. Sense of Perception

2. Retention or Memory

3. Imagination

4. Estimation


For Michelangelo, imagination has the principal role in intellectual thinking, as it can compare and construct images which give it access to universals. Again, the ultimate object of knowledge is God, the pure intellect.
Permalink Reply by Dustin Williams on August 6, 2010 at 7:26pm
It was "found" by a neurosurgeon, you're right about the inkblot.
Permalink Reply by Rob N on August 5, 2010 at 11:07am
Permalink Reply by John Jubinsky on August 7, 2010 at 6:28am
Are you aware of the reputation that Johns Hopkins has?

says Rafael Tamargo, M.D., a professor in the Department of Neurosurgery at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Permalink Reply by Joseph P on August 7, 2010 at 6:33am
I don't know much about it, besides the name and that it's nationally known. Essentially I know about it because people know about it. What's the reputation?
Permalink Reply by John Jubinsky on August 7, 2010 at 6:47am
The following is from Wikipedia (Ranking and Reputation):

Hopkins has consistently been the nation's number one medical school in the amount of competitive research grants awarded by the National Institutes of Health. Its major teaching hospital, The Johns Hopkins Hospital, has been ranked as the best hospital in the United States every year since 1992 by U.S. News and World Report[4] Askmen.com lists an M.D. from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine as one of the five most prestigious degrees in the world.[5]

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