Post by Dave on Jul 20, 2010 22:17:43 GMT -5
Did Michelangelo Paint a Brain in God?
By Wynne Parry
Published July 20, 2010
(Neurosurgery)
The hidden brain stem was spotted in Michelangelo's painting of the Separation of Light from Darkness, one of a series of Sistine Chapel panels showing scenes from the Book of Genesis. The brain stem shows up in God's neck.
Michelangelo's depiction of God's throat in one panel of his Sistine Chapel fresco is awkward -- odd for an artist so devoted to the study of anatomy. Now researchers have a theory to explain why: Michelangelo embedded an image of a human brain stem in God’s throat, they find.
The Renaissance artist is known to have studied human anatomy by dissecting cadavers when he was a young man, and continued until late in his 89 years. This practice informed his powerful depictions of the human and the divine.
But one panel of his Sistine Chapel frescoes contains an oddly lit and awkward image of God's neck and head as seen from below. The light illuminating the neck was different from that of the rest of the painting. Also, God's beard is foreshortened and appears to roll up along the sides of his jaw, and his bulbous neck has prompted speculation that Michelangelo intended to portray God with a goiter, or abnormally enlarged thyroid gland.
CONTINUED AT:
www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/07/20/michelangelo-connected-god-brain/