The Sistine Secrets (43 page)
Read The Sistine Secrets Online
Authors: Benjamin Blech,Roy Doliner
Tags: #Non-Fiction, #History, #Art, #Religion
Tree of Life (Ten S’firot): Chessed (“mercy”), 71
fig,
180, 185, 189, 232, 269; Gevurah (“severity”), 71
fig,
180, 184, 189, 269; God revealed through, 200–201; Hod (“glory, majesty”), 71
fig,
180; human body links to, 71
fig;
as Kabbalistic meditational device, 14;
The Last Judgment
panel depiction of, 269–70; Malchut (“kingdom”), 71
fig,
179; male and female characteristics of, 148, 269–70; meaning of representation of, 72; Netzach (“victory”), 71
fig,
180; Seven Middot characteristics represented by, 179–80; Sistine Chapel depiction of, 142; Tiferet (“beauty”), 71
fig,
180; Yesod (“foundation”), 180.
See also
Kabbalistic thinking; Sistine Chapel secret symbolism
triangle symbol, 86, 148–49
trompe l’oeuil (“deceive the eye”): description of, 39–40; as Sistine Chapel architecture element, 131, 138, 146, 189; Sistine Chapel image of Haman using, 163
University of Bologna, 32, 84
Valdé, Juan de, 258–61, 281 Vannini, Ottavio,
Lorenzo and the Artists of His Court,
55
fig
Vasari, Giorgio, 43, 99
Vatican City (
Città del Vaticano
): description of, 6; “fifth column” inside the, 261–62; Michelangelo’s angry poem on, 125–26, 267; past historic meaning of, 4–6; sacking (1527) of Rome and, 241–42; symbolic meaning of, 6–7; Vatican Library of, 9
fig;
Vatican Museums of, 110.
See also
Catholic Church; papacy; Rome
Vatika (Etruscan goddess), 5
Venusti, Marcello, 262–63
Victory
(Michelangelo), 245–46
fig
, 247
fig
Virgin Mary:
The Last Judgment
panel depiction of, 257
fig,
262;
Pietà
(Michelangelo) depiction of, 91–95; “The Stairway” symbolism of, 77
Westminster Abbey (London), 13
Wikipedia, 124, 125
Wilder, Thornton, 305
“wind talkers” (Navaho soldiers), 23–24
Wisdom symbolism, 197, 199–201
Wren, Sir Christopher, 301
Yesod (“foundation”), 180
Yetzer ha-Ra
(inclination toward evil), 206, 212
Yetzer ha-Tov
(inclination toward good), 206, 212
Yom Kippur, 224–25
Zechariah (Sistine Chapel): flanked by spandrels, 158; putti (angelic figures) with, 136
fig;
Seven Middot symbolism of, 181
fig;
symbolism of, 132–35
Zeri, Federico, 30
RABBI BENJAMIN BLECH
is an internationally recognized educator, religious leader, author, and lecturer. A recipient of the American Educator of the Year Award, he has been a professor of Talmud at Yeshiva University since 1966. He is the author of eleven books and has written for the
New York Times, Newsweek
, and
Newsday
. He lives in New York City. Visit the author online at www.benjaminblech.com.
ROY DOLINER
’s studies span the spectrum of the humanities: languages, comparative religion, art history, Italian and Roman history, and Judaica (including Talmud, Midrash and Kabbalah). He is often called upon to act as a docent for scholars and international dignitaries to Rome and the Vatican Museums. He divides his time between Rome and New York City. Visit the author online at www.roydoliner.com.
Visit www.AuthorTracker.com for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins author.
Cover design: Claudine Mansour
Cover art: Ceiling Fresco Cycle at Sistine Chapel by Michelangelo Buonarroti, 1508–1512, Vatican City, Rome, Italy. Image by © Jim Zuckerman/Corbis
Images not available for electronic edition.
THE SISTINE SECRETS. Copyright © 2008 by Benjamin Blech and Roy Doliner. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
Adobe Digital Edition September 2009 ISBN 978-0-06-198745-8
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*
An extra secret, this time about Leonardo: he tried to do his half of the mural project but, after making a beautiful central section, could not resist experimenting with a new fresco mixture that ruined the rest of the work. He gave up and went away to do additional anatomical studies—obviously more impressed by Michelangelo’s nudes than he would admit. The entire failed project was covered by a fairly banal battle scene by Giorgio Vasari, who would then go on to become the biographer of both Leonardo and Michelangelo. Only recently, respected art experts have discovered secret signals in the Vasari fresco that lead them to believe that Vasari actually put up an
extra wall
to preserve Leonardo’s work underneath. As we write, scientific investigations are under way.
*
Something that most people do not know: the Jewish Bible and the Old Testament are not the same thing. The Old Testament is a Church-ordained reediting of the original order of the Jewish Bible; it realigns the books of the Prophets and the Holy Writings to heighten the impression that the Hebrew Scriptures seem to be anticipating the coming of Christ. In fact, there are even many differences between the Catholic Bible and the Protestant one.
*
The Aramaic word
saba,
meaning “wise elder,” comes from the same Babylonian root as the word
sibyl.
*
If he had indeed been able to carry out the tomb in this manner, it would have been the world’s first and biggest
impressionist
sculpted monument—hundreds of years before Picasso, Giacometti, or Rodin.
*
When the Palazzo Farnese was finished, its upper hall hosted some of the most extravagant banquets in the history of Rome. All the dishes, bowls, goblets, and utensils were solid gold. At the end of each meal, the Farnese hosts would open the back window of the palace, which overlooked the Tiber River, and blithely toss the dirtied gold service pieces out the window. The guests were duly dumbstruck. What they did not know was that the Farnese servants were hiding in the bushes under the windows with large nets, to catch all the gold objects so that the same stunt could be pulled at the next banquet.
*
It is a general rule of thumb that if a Spanish family name ends in
z
(e.g., Valdez), the family was probably always Christian, whereas if it ends in
s
(e.g., Valdés), they were probably originally Jews, forced to convert after 1492.
*
The pagan Romans who wanted the Church’s gold did not appreciate this response and grilled Lawrence alive, which is why he is always depicted with an iron grill. Today, he is officially the patron saint of chefs and barbecues. Who says the Church does not have a sense of humor?
*
The Capitol Dome in Washington, DC, is the tallest building in the U.S. capital for the same reason.
*
The day he died, the elated Christians of Rome ripped down the gates of his debtors’ prison and freed about four hundred poor souls within. Then they ran to the ghetto, destroyed the barred gates there, and liberated their Jewish friends and neighbors. Catholics and Jews together then smashed all the hated statues of the pope all over Rome. They took the head off one of his giant statues, placed a Jewish “cap of shame” on its head, and danced around it, singing “Haman is dead, Haman is dead.”
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