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The Divine Wisdom of Michelangelo in "The Creation of Adam" Author(S): Maria Rzepińska Source: Artibus Et Historiae, Vol

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The Divine Wisdom of Michelangelo in The Divine Wisdom of Michelangelo in "The Creation of Adam" Author(s): Maria Rzepińska Source: Artibus et Historiae, Vol. 15, No. 29 (1994), pp. 181-187 Published by: IRSA s.c. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1483492 . Accessed: 28/08/2011 13:02 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. IRSA s.c. is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Artibus et Historiae. http://www.jstor.org MARIARZEPINSKA The Divine Wisdom of Michelangelo in The Creationof Adam The reemergence of long obscured details in Michel- Jesus from the Doni Tondo,de Tolnaysays, and he concludes angelo's newly cleaned frescoes on the ceiling of the Sistine that just as the female figure is the idea of Eve, so the putto is Chapel has prompted fresh interest in the ideological pro- the idea of Christ.3Michelangelo thus intended to convey the gram as a whole.' The focus of this article is one such detail in Platonic view that these two ideas had already preexisted in The Creation of Adam [Figs. 1-2]. This is a female figure sur- God's mind.4 rounded by smaller figures enveloped in the windblown Another interpretation of the puzzling female figure has mantle of the Creator,and identifiableas putti or angels. They been offered by Jane Schuyler,who maintainsthat in the read- are shown with God the Father in all the scenes of Creation ing of the Sistine ceiling program, Neoplatonic elements except the first. While their number and placement vary and should be supplemented by cabalistic ones.5 Her reasoning their role is not quite clear, they are always boys. Here, how- is as follows: "Cabaladiffers from traditionalJudaism in the ever, in their midst is unmistakablya woman and a very lovely belief that God's nature has male and female elements. The one at that. The Creatorembraces her with his left arm. Only right is considered the male, active side of the tree of the her head, breast, hand, and bent knee are visible. Her face is Lord's body, while the left is the female and passive side." turned towards Adam with an expression of intense concen- This left side is also associated with evil. The latter is likewise tration [Fig. 3]. present in God himself, since God (En Sof, the Infinite, the Most Michelangelo scholars have overlooked this figure. Unknowable), encompasses all, including good and evil.6 Some mention it only as a "beautifulfemale angel."2De Tolnay, According to Schuyler,the female element, identifiedwith on the other hand, writes, "It is very likely that the young the left, is illustratedon the Sistine ceiling three times, includ- woman who looks with fascination at Adam is a representa- ing the figure under discussion in The Creation of Adam.7 tive of Eve, or rather of the 'idea' of Eve." He observes that Schuyler believes the latter is the Shekhina, which emerges God singles out one of the putti by touching its shoulder with from God's left side just as Eve emerged from Adam's. In the the fingers of his left hand. The putto resembles the Infant Cabala, the Shekhina is the female component of the divine 181 MARIARZEPINSKA 1) Michelangelo Buonarroti, (cTheCreation of Adam)), Sistine Chapel, Vatican, Rome. nature, an element of God himself, whose nature is bisexual, the sephira, but at the same time she possesses sinister fea- constituting the hierogamous unity of contradictory ele- tures.9 In view of the "characterological"implications, it is im- ments-the male and the female. In the occult books based probable that Michelangelo would have had in mind this of all on the Cabala, God, identified with the sephirothic Tree of images when paintingthe female figure. Life, was frequently represented by a diagram of ten inter- In any case, there is no indication of any interest on his penetrating circles denoting the ten sephiroth, or divine ema- part in the Cabala.10David Summers includes on the list of nations.8 The ninth sephira was the Shekhina. what the artist is known with certainty to have read Dante's Schuyler writes: Divine Comedy and CristoforoLandino's platonizing commen- tary on it, as well as II convivio, Petrarch's poetry, and the As a result of her closeness to the Lord,the Shekhina is writings of Savonarola.11 It is clear from remarks cited by identifiedwith the community of Israel,the nuptialJewish Michelangelo's biographers that he also knew the work of Ecclesia, and the neshameh, the spiritusof the highest part Alberti, Pomponio Gaurico, Pliny, Vitruvius, and Marsilio of the tripartitesoul. In Michelangelo'sscene she turns her Ficino's commentary on Plato's Symposium, but that he was head around to view Adam, who has just been imbued first and foremost an avid reader of the Old and New Testa- with the neshameh (herself). Her hand affectionately en- ments-undoubtedly in the Vulgate, for it has been estab- circles the Lord'sleft arm as if to suggest that she lovingly lished that he knew Latinwell. His biography and letters dem- accepts a part in man's redemption. onstrate that he was a deeply religious man and placed high value on the true Christianlife. ButSchuyler's identificationis not convincing.Judaic schol- Nor do the Neoplatonic elements which researchers have ars point out the ambivalent characterof the Shekhina. She is discovered in his paintings and sculptures contradict this in- 182 THEDIVINE WISDOM OF MICHELANGELO 2) Michelangelo Buonarroti,((The Creation of Adam)), detail, Sistine Chapel, Vatican, Rome. ference in the least. Summers rightly recalls that to be a ment, and Messianic foreshadowing was read into various Platonist in the Renaissance, one did not have to study Plato pagan prophecies and oracles. Therefore, the presence of or even Plotinus directly. Platonism was kept alive and ex- the Sibyls on the Sistine ceiling not only caused no surprise panded upon down through the Middle Ages.12 Attempts to but presumably met with the unreserved approval of the pope reconcile Plato and Aristotle with the Bible, and the philoso- and his theological advisers.14 In this cultural context, the in- phy of late antiquity with the Revelation, reached their apo- clusion of pagan or Platonic elements in the story of the Cre- gee in the writings of the Florentine humanists of the Renais- ation is quite orthodox.15 sance. But theologians also took for granted the study of As for Michelangelo himself, contemporary records show ancient philosophers, poets, and rhetoricians alongside that that his faith was not only fervent but also wholly subordinate of the Bible.13 For the clergy at the papal court the Old Testa- to the teachings of the Church.Letters written by the artist to ment served mainly as the prefiguration of the New Testa- his family during the painting of the Sistine Chapel contain no 183 MARIARZEPINSKA 3) Michelangelo Buonarroti,((The Creation of Adam)), detail, Sistine Chapel, Vatican, Rome. 184 THEDIVINE WISDOM OF MICHELANGELO referenceto his artisticideas, but he repeatedlyasks for a prayer the sea his decree, that the waters should not pass his "thathe may please the pope" and succeed in his work.16 commandment: when he appointed the foundations of the Knowing that Michelangelo was deeply religious and fa- earth: Then Iwas by him, as one brought up with him: and miliarwith the Scriptures, Julius IImust have had equal con- I was daily his delight, rejoicingalways before him: Rejoic- fidence in both the artist's talent and his ideological program. ing in the habitablepart of his earth; and my delights were This is clear from a letter of Michelangelo's in 1523 in which with the sons of men. he describes the commissioning of the Sistine ceiling. At first the pope proposed a scene with the twelve Apostles, but These are the words of Sophia, or Divine Wisdom, she Michelangelo regarded the idea as "too modest." Julius then who accompanied the Lord from the beginning of Creation, changed his mind and gave Michelangelo free reign to do as and who may well be portrayedhere.18 She alone is so close to he saw fit: "Allorami dette nuova commissione ch'io facessi the Lord'sside, and her alert, intelligentface looks attentively ci6 ch'io volevo, e che mi contenterebbe, e ch'io dipignessi at the first of the "sons of men"created by God, whose face is insino alle storie di sotto."17Not only did Michelangelo gain serene and joyful in this fresco only. the freedom to choose his own subject matter but he also I believe that the identificationof the female figure as Di- received permission to paint a much larger area. The "storie vine Wisdom is indeed the most probable, even if it may strike di sotto" refer to works by Quattrocento painters of episodes some as too simplistic. Corroborationappears to lie in recent from the lives of Moses and Christ. So much trust shown by studies by historians of religion, summed up by J. O'Malley. the head of the Church obligated Michelangelo to do his ut- He rejects-perhaps too radically-the prevailingNeoplatonic most; it is therefore understandable that he wanted his father interpretation of art historians in favor of the view that to pray that his son might satisfy the pope in every respect.
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