The speaker at our May 2004 dinner meeting was Nathan B. Winters, Professor Emeritus of Art and Architecture at the University of Utah. He gave a marvelous presentation on Michaelangelo’s painting on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel . Professor Winters explained how Michaelangelo and other artists of the day were avid students of the human anatomy and how these artists would go to great lengths to obtain cadavers so that they could study parts of the human body.
Perhaps the most famous section of the Sistine Chapel painting is the “creation of Adam” shown above. Referring to an article in the Journal of the American Medical Association, Professor Winters presented a recently developed theory that the image behind God is a cross section of the human brain. This interpretation of the image debunks the long standing idea that this painting depicts God in the act of creating Adam. According to the new theory, the painting depicts God imparting knowledge or intellect to Adam. It is widely believed that through Michaelangelo’s extensive studies of the human brain, this particular background image was quite intentional on his part. The similarities between the painting and a cross section of the human brain are clearly seen in the sketch on the right.
What a great presentation! Thank you, Professor Winters.