almotifs and nude male figures. The corner triangles depict heroic action in the OldTestament, while the other eight triangles depict the biblical ancestors of Jesus Christ.Michelangelo conceived and executed this huge work as a single unit. Its overall meaningis a problem. The issue has engaged historians of art for generations without satisfactoryresolution. The paintings that were done by Michelangelo had been painted with thebrightest colors that just bloomed the whole ceiling as one entered to look. The ceiling hadbeen completed just a little after the Pope had died. The Sistine Chapel is the best frescoever done.Michelangelo embodied many characteristic qualities of the Renaissance. Anindividualistic, highly competitive genius (sometimes to the point of eccentricity).Michelangelo was not afraid to show humanity in its natural state - nakedness; even infront of the Pope and the other religious leaders. Michelangelo portrayed life as it is, evenwith its troubles. Michelangelo wanted to express his own artistic ideas. The mostpuzzling thing about Michelangelos ceiling design is the great number of seeminglyirrelevant nude figures that he included in his gigantic fresco. Four youths frame most ofthe Genesis scenes. We know from historical records that various church officials objectedto the many nudes, but Pope Julius gave Michelangelo artistic freedom, and eventuallyruled the chapel off limits to anyone save himself, until the painting was completed. Themany nude figures are referred to as Ignudi. They are naked humans, perhaps representingthe naked truth. More likely, I think they represent Michelangelos concept of the humanpotential for perfection. Michelangelo himself said, Whoever strives for perfection isstriving for something divine. In painting nude humans, he is suggesting the unfinishedhuman; each of us is born nude with a mind and a body, in Neoplatonic thought, with thepower to be our own shapers. Michelangelo has a very g...
