Was Michelangelo Sending a Sacrilegious Message?

  

      It's a secret that's been hiding in open view of historians, art buffs and worshippers for over five centuries, and one that raises new questions about the religious ideology of an iconic artist.

Michelangelo, renowned for his remarkably accurate depictions of the human form, was an accomplished anatomist who hid detailed figures within some of his most well-known frescoes. That's according to comprehensivenew research published in this month's issue of Neurosurgery.

But the artist destroyed most of his anatomical renderings, other than several that he concealed in a surprisingly public space: the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.

This photo shows a detail of Michelangelo's "The Separation of Light from Darkness" on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. A pair of scientists now speculate that the twists and turns of the fabric are actually depicting intricate neural networks and a spinal cord.

It's not the first time it's been suggested that the artist might have kept secrets in plain sight. In a 1990 paper published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, expert Frank Meshberger concluded that Michelangelo's oeuvre, "The Creation of Adam," concealed a meticulous anatomical rendering of the human brain.

Now, researchers Ian Suk and Rafael Tamargo have taken the examination of Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel frescoes -- which took the artist four years to complete -- to a new level of analysis.

The colleagues, both neuroanatomy experts at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, have uncovered a brain stem, eyes, optic nerves and a spinal cord concealed within a rendering of God that's part of "The Separation of Light From Darkness," which is found at the furthest west end of the chapel's ceiling.

"What was Michelangelo saying by construction the voice box of God out of the brain stem of man? Is it a sacrilege or homage?" writes R. Douglas Fields, an expert in nervous system development and adjunct professor at the University of Maryland, College Park, at Scientific American.

The two were tipped off to the anatomical renderings by Michelangelo's unusual approach in this painting of God, including a bumpy neck and bunched up clothing that cloaks the figure. In fact, they now think, the twists and turns of the fabric are actually depicting intricate neural networks and a spinal cord.

Of course, it's possible that the neuroanatomists are making more of the peculiarities than what the artist wanted them to mean. But if Michelangelo did conceal anatomical renderings within his religiously oriented oeuvres, the question of intent lingers.

"It is no secret that Michelangelo's relationship with the Catholic Church became strained," Fields writes. "Is 'Separation of Light From Darkness' an artistic comment on the enduring clash between science and religion?"

As further evidence for the theory, Fields notes that Michelangelo also included self-portraits on the roof of the chapel, depicting the artist undergoing excruciating pain and suffering.

And despite being a devout Catholic for much of his life, Michelangelo was eventually condemned for his diverging beliefs -- in particular, the idea that one can commune with God without using the church as medium.

"Perhaps the meaning in the Sistine Chapel is not of God giving intelligence to Adam, but rather that intelligence and observation and the bodily organ that makes them possible lead without the necessity of Church directly to God," Fields speculates.