Michelangelo

Michelangelo Buonarott

Vatican City, Italy.

Michelangelo is one of the most amazing painters in a way because he is one of the only, or very few people who painted ceillings on such a grand scale. Also because of the reason that the ideas captured witing the painting were ideas that still exist today.

When looked at next to the time period, the The Downfall of Adam and Eve can mean many different things. It can be anything from the idea that during this period there were a lot of changes and that seperation is really a seperation from the church and state. Many times the happenings of the time tend to be reflected on the actions and works of those who are bring affected. In my response, I tend to support this idea. The other thing that I would say is that sin will temp humans. In this painting Satin is depicted as a woman reacing out to Eve and helping her reach him (Sin/Evil/Satan). It also shows how the age of Michelangelo saw sin but was not yet eating from its tree. They were merely looking at the sin, but not yet into the era when chaos ruled. This view is represented in the picture because Adam is just holding on to the branch and looking at the devil.

Opinions:

Michelangelo painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel from 1508 to 1512, commissioned by Pope Julius II. On becoming pope in 1503, Julius II reasserted papal authority over the Roman barons and successfully backed the restauration of the Medici in Florence. He was a liberal patron of the arts, commissioning Bramante to build St Peter's Church, Michelangelo to paint the Sistine Chapel, and Raphael to decorate the Vatican apartments.

In other words, the ceiling illustrates that God made the World as a perfect creation and put Humankind into it, Humankind fell into disgrace and was punished by death, and by separation from God. God sent Prophets and Sybils to tell Humankind that the Saviour or Christ, Jesus, would would bring them redemption. God prepared a lineage of people, all the way from Adam, through various characters written of in the Old Testament, such as King David, to the Virgin Mary through whom the Saviour of Humankind, Jesus, would come. The various components of the ceiling are linked to this doctrine.-Annoymous