Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Michelangelo, philosemite? Very interesting stuff (h/t: Marvin):
...His veiled messages were painted at a time when the Talmud and other Jewish sacred texts were being burned all over Europe, the Inquisition was operating at full strength and the Jewish people had just been expelled from Spain in 1492. Michelangelo had the courage to challenge the papal court, asking via the symbols of his painting, "Is this how you treat the very family of Our Lord?"
Michelangelo's contempt for the Church's treatment of Jews went further to insult the pope himself via an almost imperceptible gesture of Aminadab. Almost hidden in shadow, this surrogate for Jesus is subtly making "devil's horns" with his fingers, which point downward toward the very spot where Pope Julius' richly embroidered ceremonial canopy would have been, over the papal throne.
In somewhat similar manner, in another fresco placed over the original chapel portal through which Pope Julius entered, Michelangelo depicts the prophet Zechariah with the pope's own face. Over his shoulder one can see a little angel with his fingers curled in a way to make an obscene gesture known in Italy as "giving the fig."...
The rest is here. It must be a bit awkward for the Pope if all this is true. But then again, Michelangelo is dead, Pope Julius is dead, and the Church that treated the Jews rather shabbily is effectively dead, so maybe everyone can afford to be philosophical about it -- enjoy the art and the Christian (and coincidentally Jewish) stories...and consider the hidden message a historical relic like the Pope and Church long gone.
They might be dead but the legacy of some of them lives on.
Just waiting for the right circumstances to blossom and turn philosophy into reality.
Michelangelo was perpetually disgruntled at being shifted off his favorite project, Pope Julius' never-finished tomb, to what he regarded as demeaning work (like the Sistine Chapel). If he was taking shots at Julius, I'd imagine that that was his prime motivation, not concern for the Jews.
(When Benedict took office, I'd hoped he would choose an old-skool name like Julius or Urban, but it's not like I have any say in the matter...)