secrets of the sistine on now
 

on ABC

I knew it about and forget to watch it!...I'm so upset...however, I can't believe Michelangelo painted "secrets"..he was too "into" his work and consumed by it.

Did anyone see it...what did you think?

Oh, Gucci, now Dan Brown will write another horrid novel that the unwashed masses will adore.

Thin

Well I don't know how those authors were able to get showcased in primetime. They have their theories about some of the portraits on the ceiling.

The facts they give about Michelangelo that they present as newsbreaking are well known.

The only part I found that was news to me was the act of "giving the fig" which was supposed to be giving the "finger" at that time. Also I had not noticed that Adam and Eve were picking figs instead of apples. And all of these years apples have been getting a bad rap, some of the other scholars agree that the fruit could have been a fig since they started wearing fig leaves as their fashion statement after eating the fruit of knowledge....the fig.

Proenza_Preschooler- He probably will, but then, he STILL hasn't come out with the book on the Masonics that people heard about and was expecting three years ago or so...

We watched it and the best part was the photography of Florence, the Sistine Chapel ceiling, David, etc.

We too were reminded of Dan Brown's attempt at sensationalism (he must have had really bad nuns in school--not a very good creative writing teacher either).

I'm afraid we couldn't agree with the conclusions made by the authors of the new book. Most of what they postulated as secret messages were a real stretch! It was interesting though and I'm glad we watched.

Seemed a bit like religious jealousy to me...and not real well contrived at that.

I agree with mdtravel...I felt there was a bit of religious competition there. I've read a fair amount about Michelangelo on my own and hadn't read 99% of their claims, so I stopped listening to their craziness and just enjoyed the pictures.

On an interesting sidenote, I'm fairly certain Elizabeth Lev, who was interviewed, is a guide for Context Rome.

It was interesting. I also had not thought about figs before, and wonder why we always hear about apples. Figs would make more sense in a tropical or sub-tropical climate.

I also had not seen the image of a brain until it was pointed out in this show.

There is always more stuff that can be discovered in great art, and the danger is that in looking at any art from just one perspective you run the risk of excluding much that is interesting. The authors of this book both increase this risk by emphasizing their own perspective and decrease the risk by exposing others to possible new viewpoints to the study of Michelangelo's work.

It was a bit of a stretch wasn't it!

But I do believe if M could have dissed the pope he would have!! That man was a jerk and a hypocrite.I'm sure M knew he would never go up and take a closer look..

I'm no Sister Wendy, as far as Art is concerned, but don,t the interpretations belong to the viewers? Thats the point of art

Catholisicm is a cult. It's amazing how the pope comes to america and goes ga ga over him. Can we say cult,cult, cult people? At least seperate church from state, I mean if a protestant fails to seperate church from state everyone yells and rightly so but when a catholic or Jeremiah Wright does not , well that is ok, NOT.

All I can say is that I'm so happy to rub shoulders with the squeaky clean elite here at Fodors.

But I have a confession: I read The Da Vinci Code, so I might well be one of the "unwashed masses." You might have to hold your nose when I'm around, Proenza.

Oh, come on, "The Da Vinci Code" was a piece of crap and you know it. Rip the pages out of the novel and wipe your dog's arse with them.

You can't tell many Fodorites that, however. So many on this site think that Dan Brown deserves a Pulitzer.

If you want to equate being elitist with being intelligent, fine by me.

Thin

Time to get back to travel. . . . I leave for Belgium and points south in 25 days.

I'm taking Angels and Demons with me - I've heard that Europeans don't believe in toilet paper.

"And all of these years apples have been getting a bad rap, some of the other scholars agree that the fruit could have been a fig since they started wearing fig leaves as their fashion statement after eating the fruit of knowledge....the fig. "

I've actually heard it might be a banana, too. But it was from a whole book about bananas, so not entirely impartial.

Good one, Mirachan.

Maybe the History channel wouldn't buy this show, so ABC News did. It was pretty silly.

Thin- I agree, the only good thing out of me reading that book was that it's larger sized print (in the hardcover) helped me get through the migraine I had at the time.


But, from the standpoint of my job (chain bookstore), the money we made from the book in the first two/three years was great!


It is a ridiculous book, but of course, there are worse things they could be reading, IMO. :P