Michelangelo's Secret Message



Two experts in neuroanatomy are convinced that Michelangelo's depiction of God in the Sistine Chapel contains a secret message found in the bumps on the Almighty's neck: a map of the human brain (meant to represent human intelligence). It seems to me that an expert in vegetables would see a bell pepper, and an expert in clouds would see a cumulonimbus, but their argument is nothing if not exhaustive.

There are plenty of other easter eggs hidden in masterpieces, so maybe it's true.

Link via 3QuarksDaily

I am convinced that there are a few hidden things in this piece, but I am not even remotely convinced that this is one of them.

I've had people see things in my paintings that I didn't put there, and I remember one occasion where someone insisted I was lying to them about it. We are pattern-seeking animals.
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This is very unconvincing, but there are much more believable ones out there about the Sistine Chapel ceiling:

From the Telegraph:

In 1990, Frank Meshberger argued in the Journal of the American Medical Association that the central panel, showing God and Adam reaching out to touch each other was in the shape of a brain and spinal cord.

In 2000, Dr Garabed Eknoyan saw the shape of a kidney in the painting, while in 2005 two Brazilian doctors found hidden body parts throughout, including a bronchial tube hidden in the tree trunk in the panel showing Eve's Creation.
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Ok.... this is just insanely stupid. I agree that there are a lot of hidden things in this painting, but this one is a huge stretch. Seriously... somebody had too much time on their hands.
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This is just evidence that you can study something, like brains, and not know how to use it.

"Apophenia is the experience of seeing patterns or connections in random or meaningless data." (WIKI)
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It makes for a good story, but what purpose does it serve? Why the hell would someone be so secretive? Why the hell would someone try to argue this?

I mean, seriously, the outlined figure they have looks like a woman in jeans with a tucked in shirt, laying on her stomach, facing away from the viewer. Maybe Michelangelo was trying to tell us that jeans were going to be a huge hit. Maybe he secretly liked the tucked-in shirt look.

Give me a fu**ing break.
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