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« The Morning Report — 6/27/23 | Main | The Morning Rant: Minimalist Edition »
June 27, 2023

The Mid-Morning Art Thread [Kris]

Michelangelo Sistine detail.jpg

“The Fall & Expulsion from Paradise”
Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni

In this scene from Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel Ceiling, the artist combines two separate events from the Biblical account of Creation into one frame. On the left is the Fall of Man. On the right is The Expulsion from Paradise. They are cause and effect, depicting sin and its consequences. Together, they are an allegory of Jesus Christ.

In the center of the work is the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. The serpent’s thick, powerful coils wind around the trunk. Notice the serpent is half-woman and resembles Eve. This might reflect the medieval and Renaissance belief that women were responsible for the Fall. Here Eve sees herself in the serpent and deceives herself. Adam and Eve are already at the Tree. The serpent hands Eve the fruit but Adam picks one off himself. This is interesting as while Eve needed to be coaxed to sin, Adam does not hesitate. The poses of the humans’ bodies fit together like puzzle pieces. Adam stands facing the Tree and twists his torso to his left exposing his back to the viewer. He reaches for the fruit with his right hand. Meanwhile, Eve sits at Adam’s feet with her back to the tree, but she twists exposing her front. She takes the fruit with her left hand. This pose/counterpose creates a contrasting balance. For me, the conflict in their poses reminds me of the conflicts of the event itself—between what God said and what the serpent said, and between obedience to God and Free Will—and ultimately between God and Man.

On the right is the consequence of disobedience—ejection from Eden. Notice how Adam and Eve have changed, especially Eve. On the left, the humans are beautiful and young. On the right, their faces wince and twist. To me, they look older and uglier. This could also represent the ugliness of sin and its side-effects: aging and death. For Michelangelo and many artists of the era, eternal youth sometimes symbolized spiritual purity. This is why, in many works, the Virgin Mary will look eternally young, no matter how old she’s supposed to be. The landscape the two are banished to is featureless and barren, the opposite of the Garden.

Michelangelo does something interesting with positive and negative space here too. The left-hand side is full of stuff—people, rocks, and a leafy tree. The right side is nearly empty, except for Adam, Eve, and the angel. There is a lot of empty space here but Michelangelo filled it with emotional weight. The faces of pre-Fall humanity are inexpressive. They are just there. On the right, they are all emotion. Their faces are distorted as they weep and cower before the avenging angel. The angel’s authority is made more potent by the outstretched sword. There’s violence here. This continues the balance/counterbalance theme seen in the rest of the panel.

The entire decorative program of the Sistine Chapel ceiling is a humungous allegory for Jesus Christ and His redemption of Mankind. This panel represents the Crucifixion. The serpent and the angel mirror each other. They look alike and have opposite poses. Their outstretched arms, sword, tree branches form the horizontal beam resting on top of the vertical tree truck, making a Cross. The first Adam sinned and Man fell. Through Jesus Christ, “the second Adam”, Man is redeemed, and sin and death are defeated.



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posted by Open Blogger at 09:30 AM

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