Monsters and the Sistine Chapel's ceiling plan

Interestingly enough, what struck me most during this short week of classes was the latter section of Doc's PowerPoint presentation on Medieval "print" media. It focused around the art that was painted in churches during the time period and delved into the subject of Medieval architecture itself.

When we began to talk about the tendency for people to (for lack of a better term) 'look around' during Church services and discussed how that would've been the main reasoning's for the (almost) bombardment of Christian art, I began to view those actions in two very different lights. See, I tried to place myself in that time period while also drawing from modern experiences I've had with churches in the past and, by doing this, I seemed to have encapsulated two distinct perspectives.

The first perspective, which I might as well refer to as the 'normal (culturally accepted) perspective' was one of absolute awe. Upon viewing the interior of buildings such as the Sistine chapel I could not help but stare in disbelief as I witnessed this incredible devotion to faith and details. Even though I am viewing it 500 years later, Michelangelo has managed to make the often overlooked, core of Christianity beautiful.

On the other hand, however, as I began to really take the piece in as a whole and witness the sheer magnitude of the chapel's interior I felt seriously terrified. It was as if all of the colors and depictions of people began to flood my entire vision and there was simply too much to take in. In fact, almost all of the characters began to take on a 'monstrous' appearance as I began to imagine them all falling from the wall and coming to life.

It was then that I realized my two perspectives happened to be clearly represented in the art itself. With another look at the Sistine Chapel's ceiling plan we briefly viewed today, I noticed that the division of the 9 scenes are categorized into three separate 'sections', two of them being: The creation and downfall of Adam and Eve and The Creation.

Now, if I were to assign my perspective's each one of the previously mentioned categories, the 'normal perspective' would match up with the depictions of The Creation. This is because it seems that, at the bare minimum, the basic, societal understanding of God is one from the first few lines in Genesis. As for the depictions of the creation and downfall of Adam and Eve, I believe they would match up with the monstrous viewpoint. Not only were they, quite figuratively, depicted as monsters in the Bible but still, to this day, represent the monstrous tendencies inside of us that we must actively seek to avoid.