Michelangelo: The Last Judgement

The Last Judgement is a fresco painting by Michelangelo covering the whole altar wall of Sistine Chapel in Vatican City. This masterpiece is a depiction of the Second Coming of Christ and the final and eternal judgment by God of all humanity. The painting consists a total of 300 figures. In the painting, the souls of humans rise and descend to their fates, as judged by Christ who is surrounded by prominent saints. It is possible the grandest painting ever made.

The Last Judgement by Michelangelo

Central Group around Christ

To complete this masterpiece of great grandeur, it took Michelangelo a period of over four years. By the time this painting was completed, Michelangelo had hit 67th mark of his age. Again, it is a painting of grand scale consisting of 300 figures with no visible error in the slightest of details. No wonder, why it took Michelangelo four years to complete this painting. In the lower part of the fresco, he showed the ascending at the left and the damned descending at the right. In the upper part, the inhabitants of Heaven are joined by the newly saved. The majority of angels and males are nude. The fresco is dominated by the tones of flesh and sky.

In terms of theme, their is a very strong reason why this painting sets itself apart from the same kind of numerous works made during that era. While traditional compositions generally depicted an ordered, harmonious heavenly world above with the tumultuous events taking place in the earthly zone below, in contrasting Michelangelo's conception the arrangement and posing of the figures across the entire painting give an impression of agitation and even in the upper parts there is a profound disturbance, tension and commotion among the figures. At the center of the work is Christ, shown as the individual verdicts of the Last Judgement are pronounced. He looks down towards the damned. The depiction of Christ is also different as he is shown beardless while most of the tradition works during that time showed him with a beard. I guess Michelangelo didn't find Christ's beard game to be strong. Christ also has the wounds of his Crucifixion.

Bartholomew with the face of Michelangelo

Surrounding Christ in a slow rotary movement are figures, identified as the saints of God. On a similar scale to Christ are John the Baptist on the left, and on the right Saint Peter, holding the keys of Heaven and offering them back to Christ. Several of the main saints appear to be showing Christ their attributes, the evidence of the martyrdom. This is interpreted as if the saints are themselves not certain of their own verdicts, and are trying at the last moment to remind Christ of their sufferings. Other prominent saints include Saint Bartholomew below Peter, holding the attribute of his martyrdom, his own skin. Now this is one of the Easter eggs of this complex painting as the face on Saint Bartholomew is a self-portrait of Michelangelo. I mean WOW! Michelangelo was making the grandest painting of all time with 300 figures in it so he just thought why not paint myself too in my own work. Maybe he wanted to live eternally not only by his own painting but also in his own painting. He gave art experts a hard time to recognize his own face among 299 other figures

Biagio da Cesena as Minos

The movements of the souls reflect the traditional pattern. They arise from their graves at bottom left, and some continue upwards, helped in several cases by angels in the air or others on clouds, pulling them up. Others, the dammed, apparently pass over to the right. There is a zone in the lower middle that is empty of souls. A boat rowed by an aggressive Charon, who ferried souls to the Underworld in classical mythology brings souls to land beside the entrance to Hell. The painting lacks the devil of hell, Satan. Many people found this unusual too. To fill Satan's role, painting consists of another classical devil, Minos, who supervises the admission of the Damned into Hell. Another Easter Egg, Minoshas the face of Biagio da Cesena, a critic of Michelangelo in the Papal court. According to records, Michelangelo hated this person. Maybe he thought if I cannot send this guy to hell in reality, then I will just let him to forever rot in hell in my own painting. Michelangelo - 1, Biagio da Cesena - 0.  A feeling of chaos is further generated by the depiction Devils pulling down many damned souls while angels push some of them from the sky.

The painting has a very chaotic tone  to it. But, I love it as to me it depicts that human beings commit sins very casually but when the Judgement Bell rings, they reduce to nothing but despicable cowards trapped in their eternal misery. Anyhow, it was a long review because why not? It is The Last Judgement. And, my Last Judgement to this painting is that it is OVERQUALIFIED nonetheless, my favorite painting to be ever made. 

Charon with his boat of damned souls

Salvador Dali: Dream Caused by the Flight of a Bee Around a Pomegranate a Second Before Awakening

Dream Caused by the Flight of a Bee Around a Pomegranate a Second Before Awakening is a surrealist painting by Salvador Dali. Well, before I start analyzing and reviewing the painting, I must say that Dali could have give this masterpiece a bit shorter name. Since Dali didn't do that, his fans gave it a shorter name Dream Caused by the Flight of Bee. He painted this painting in 1944 while he and his wife, Gala were living in America.

The Dream Caused by the Flight of a Bee by Salvador Dali

The painting itself is as complicated as the title. Dali defined this painting as "hand-painted dream photograph". In the painting, there is a seascape of distant horizons and calm waters. The naked lady amidst the horizon is his wife Gala. Next to the naked body of the sleeping woman, which levitates above a flat rock that floats above the sea, Dali depicts two suspended droplets of water and a pomegranate which is a Christian symbol of fertility and resurrection. Above the pomegranate flies a bee, an insect that traditionally symbolizes the Virgin. In the upper left of the painting what seems to be a rockfish bursts out of the pomegranate, and in turn spews out a tiger that then spews out another tiger and a rifle with a bayonet that is about to sting Gala in the arm. Above them is an elephant with long flamingo legs, found in his later compositions such as The Temptation of St. Anthony. The elephant carries on its back an obelisk.

Famous Psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud had a very strong influence on Dali's mind which can be seen through his idiosyncratic artwork. In this painting, Dali's attempted to explore the world of dreams in a dreamscape. The bayonet, as a symbol of the stinging bee, represents the woman's abrupt awakening from her otherwise peaceful dream. In 1962, Dali said this painting was intended "to express for the first time in images Freud's discovery of the typical dream with a lengthy narrative, the consequence of the instantaneousness of a chance event which causes the sleeper to wake up. Thus, as a bar might fall on the neck of a sleeping person, causing them to wake up and for a long dream to end with the guillotine blade falling on them, the noise of the bee here provokes the sensation of the sting which will awaken Gala." To many people including myself, the painting also seems like "a surrealist interpretation of the Theory of Evolution." It shows the evolution of creatures but in a randomized surrealist manner in which any creature can evolve to any creature. Nevertheless, this weird surrealist masterpiece perfectly shows Dali's intense imagination while portraying a logical point of abrupt awakening from a dream due to an external chance event. 

Pablo Picasso: The Accordionist

Pablo Picasso developed a new art style called cubism from 1907 to 1914 which is widely regarded as the most innovative and influential artistic style of the 20th century. The style includes the division of three-dimensional forms into a two-dimensional plane. The Accordionist is one the paintings painted by Picasso that truly captures the essence of cubism. As the title states, the painting is meant to portray a man playing an accordion.

The Accordionist by Pablo Picasso

Despite painting's goal to depict a man playing an Accordionist, it is a painting on the verge on complete abstraction. The monochromatic shade and effect further camouflages the subject. Surfaces are broken into sharply defined planes but are not yet complexly fragmented; forms still retain an illusion of volume; and perspective, though dramatically shortened, is not obliterated. At its climax, Picasso bought this painting almost to the point of complete abstraction but mercifully left a line of vague distinction enough to see the subject. This was the true beauty of his cubist paintings. Even though on the verge of abstraction, if seen carefully one could see the subject matter clearly. It was almost as if Picasso was trying to judge the beholder's ability to see the true art in his paintings instead of just mere shapes and shades. The Accordionist is 51.25 inches tall and 35.25 inches wide, painted in oil on canvas. The composition consists of a multitude of geometric shapes of various sizes and content. The shapes most densely populate the middle of the painting. Since there is no obvious subject, this composition leads the viewer’s eye around the painting in an attempt to decipher the content. Also focused toward the center of the painting are the dark colors, which aid in drawing the viewer in to explore the painting. Picasso utilized the drab, muted tones in order to place the emphasis on the subject. Picasso’s dull palette also lends itself well to the piecing together of the different perspectives of the same subject. With diligence, one can distinguish the general outlines of the seated accordionist, denoted by a series of shifting vertically aligned triangular planes, semicircular shapes, and right angles; the centrally located folds of the accordion and its keys; and, in the lower portion of the canvas, the volutes of an armchair. But Picasso’s elusive references to recognizable forms and objects cannot always be precisely identified and, as the Museum of Modern Art’s founding director Alfred H. Barr, Jr. observed, “the mysterious tension between painted image and ‘reality’ remains.” This tension between what our eyes perceive and what they should perceive is what truly makes this painting one of the greatest ever. It is a work of art that truly tests the vision of another artist.

Salvador Dali: Metamorphosis of Narcissus

Metamorphosis of Narcissus is an oil-on-canvas painting by the Spanish surrealist painter Salvador Dali.In 1930s, Salvador Dali developed a surrealist technique called paranoiac-critical method. His artworks with this technique involved optical illusions and other multiple images in order to invoke a fear that self is being targeted and manipulated by other elements. The aspect of paranoia that Dali was interested in was the ability of the brain to perceive links between things which were not linked rationally. Dali described the paranoiac-critical method as a "spontaneous method of irrational knowledge based on the critical and systematic objectivity of the associations and interpretations of delirious phenomena." This painting is Dalí's interpretation of the Greek myth of Narcissus. Narcissus was a youth of great beauty who loved only himself and broke the hearts of many lovers. The gods punished him by letting him see his own reflection in a pool. He fell in love with it, but discovered he could not embrace it and died of frustration. Relenting, the gods immortalized him as the narcissus (daffodil) flower.

Metamorphosis of Narcissus by Salvador Dali

The first scene is in the bottom left corner, it’s an enlarged shape of a man with his head resting on his knee. The man is crouched in the water with his reflection shining back from a pool of water. The next scene is to the bottom right of the first. In the middle there is another form with the shape of the man but this one appears to be a stone hand that is holding an egg. The egg is cracked with a white flower growing out of it. The crack from which the flower is growing also functions as the shadow of the flower. This shows the use of optical illusions in Dali's paintings. The shape of Narcissus' body overlaps that of the hand. This was done to create mirror effect to dis-balance one's natural perception. Behind the hand there is a fire that has gone out so there is a smoking fire pit. There are also two types of animals in this scene, one is some ants that are crawling up the thumb to the egg and the other is a dog that is at the right of the hand eating some sort of bloody meat. The ants represent decay. On the right behind the figure of the man are a group of women gathered on a dirt road. All the women are naked and some seem to be weeping, while others are dancing. The last scene is behind the stone hand. There is a statue that is standing on a pedestal in the middle of a chess board. The single piece on chess board denotes that no matter how handsome Narcissus might think he was but in reality he was just a solitary man caged in his own delusional game. These four parts make this painting very interesting with different layers and emotions.

This painting showcased Dali's ability to see things simultaneously as more than one thing as a result of the psychological state called paranoiac-critical activity. Famous Psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud gave a theory that there were filters in mind/brain that kept the conscious and unconscious brain apart. But, Dali claimed that in the state of paranoiac-critical activity he could embrace both the conscious and unconscious sides of his brain. Thus, this painting was born due to the intercourse between rationality and irrationality. Dali's paintings impress me like none other because they are not only artistic in nature but deploy natural sciences with shit ton of psychology too. In Metamorphosis of Narcissus, Dali basically brought a tragic philosophical moralistic story alive on a canvas and then seamlessly added tons of optical illusory effects to boggle viewer's perception of colors, shape and form. This whole interpretation of this painting can be very wrong. In Dali's case whenever you think you are looking at things correctly, you are almost certain to be wrong.

Michelangelo: The Creation of Adam (Who created Who?)

What can be more beautiful than a painting of Genesis created by one of the greatest painters of all time? Michelangelo was the greatest sculpture, painter, architect, and poet who revolutionized all the creative fields he touched during Italian Renaissance. The man painted the Sistine Chapel's ceiling over a period of four years. The Creation of Adam is what makes the work on the ceiling iconic. It is funny as Michelangelo considered painting to be a second hand art but still ended up leaving quite a few greatest paintings to be ever made.

The Creation of Adam by Michelangelo

Near touching of hands

The Creation of Adam is a fresco painting which illustrates the Biblical creation narrative from the Book of Genesis in which God breathes life into Adam, the first man. The fresco is part of a complex iconographic scheme and is chronologically the fourth in the series of panels depicting episodes from Genesis. Diving into the composition of the painting, the god doesn't allure me much as he just looks like an elderly white-bearded man wrapped in a swirling cloak. Whereas, Adam, on the lower left, is completely nude (nothing extraordinary in that since apparently artists during Renaissance were fascinated by human anatomy and nudity more than anything else).  What really fascinates me is God and Adam reaching out to each other but failing to do so by a minute inch. This minor detail is a spectacle that leaves a huge impact on the beholder (even to an atheist like me). The failure to touch each other hands represents how reality is almost within one's grasp but is still out of reach by a margin. It is also a reminder of how god created man in his own image.

Human Brain Easter Egg

However, there is one little twist, an Easter egg to be more concise, that Michelangelo left hidden in the painting that has bewildered the minds of the weird people (like me) who takes these things a little too seriously. In 1990, an Anderson, Indiana physician, Frank Meshberger, noted in the Journal of the American Medical Association that the background figures and shapes portrayed behind the figure of God appeared to be an anatomically accurate picture of the human brain. Renaissance man loved anatomy. Leonardo DaVinci used to dissect horses and dead human bodies so that he could draw/sculpt a more physically and geometrically accurate embodiment of humans/animals. So, it isn't hard to imagine that Michelangelo purposely left that easter egg for art freaks to forever scratch the hair on their head. On close examination, it was revealed that borders in the painting correlate with major sulci of the cerebrum in the inner and outer surface of the brain, the brain stem, the frontal lobe, the basilar artery, the pituitary gland and the optic chiasm. For me, the finding of human brain completely inverted the whole meaning of the painting. It made me wonder whether God engulfed in a brain like figure reflects that God is the product of human thinking and imagination. It perfectly captured the essence of typical philosophical dilemma of whether god made man or man made god. Is god just a product of human brain? Maybe, Adam failed to touch the hands of God because God is just in his mind and not in reality. Should the painting be called The Creation of God instead of The Creation of Adam? Despite of all these endless questions and interpretations, I would just like to say that the painting is awfully beautiful and has a mystical panache to it.

Pablo Picasso: Guernica

Pablo Picasso painted Guernica in June 1937. It is a mural-sized oil painting which uses a palette of gray, white, and black to depict the suffering of  the people wrenched by violence, bloodshed, and chaos. It is considered to be one of the most powerful and moving anti-war pieces of art in history.

Guernica by Pablo Picasso

Picasso took thirty-five days to complete this masterpiece. The painting was created in response to the bombing of Guernica, a country village in northern Spain, by Nazi German and Italian warplanes at the request of the Spanish Nationalists. The painting was prominently exhibited in the 1937 World's Fair in Paris and then at the other venues to raise funds for Spanish  war relief. Thus, in the process, painting became widely famous and helped to bring world's attention to the atrocious Spanish Civil War.

The painting depicts a wide-eyed bull standing over a woman grieving her dead child in the arms. The center consists of a horse falling in agony after being struck by a spear. A dead dismembered  soldier is lying under the horse. His severed arm still grasps a shattered sword from which a flower can be seen growing. This depicts the glimpse of hope amidst a blood war setting. Above the horse's head, a light bulb blazes in the shape of an evil eye. Then a few bystanders frightened by this horrible scenery can be seen in the painting. There are two hidden elements too in the painting. They are - a human skull overlaying the horse's body and another bull appears to gore the horse from underneath. The bull's head is mainly formed by the horse's entire front leg.

Overall, the painting does an excellent job in achieving its purpose. The blend of grey, white, and black reflects the somber mood and chaotic tone of the the Spanish Civil War. The shape and posture of the figures depict protest. Guernica perfectly symbolizes a deathly setting to represent the destructive power of wars. It does more than just to meet the audience's eye. It provokes emotions of fear, sadness, and pity in the hearts of its viewer while leaving an important anti-war message.

Salvador Dali: The Persistence of Memory

The prominent Spanish surrealist painter named Salvador Dali painted his most recognizable work The Persistence of Memory in 1931. The painting is also called by other names such as "The Soft Watches" or "The Melting Watches." It is called by these names because of what it portrays. This famous surreal piece depicts four different soft melting pocket watches.

The Persistence of Memory by Salvador Dali

The watches were thought to be unconscious symbols of the relativity of space and time. People assumed it was based on Einstein's theory of special relativity. Dali denied these assumptions and interpretations of his painting. He revealed that the watches were inspired by the surrealist perception of a Camembert melting in the sun. The shapeless figure in the middle of the composition is an example of various contemporary symbolic figures that Dali used to represent himself. He did so to prevent his abstract form from turning into a self-portrait. The figure is interpreted as a "fading" creature,  one that appears in dreams. the creature himself is in the dream state as symbolized one of his closed eye. The orange clock is covered in ants which represents "decay."  The clocks and the creature perfectly blend in together to symbolize the persistence of time in the eyes of a dreamer during a dream.

For me, it is one of the most mind boggling paintings I have ever seen. The use of imagery and symbols is way too refined and strong. The abstract surrealist painting represents even a more abstract idea with a deep psychological affect related to dreams, space and time. The softening of watches is beautifully done as if they are really melting in front of your eyes. In my opinion, one thing that painting lacks is emotional depth. But, this painting was never meant to appeal to emotions. It was meant to appeal to one's eyes, senses, mind, and conscious. This masterpiece is currently located in Museum of Modern Art, New York City.