10 Hidden Details You Never Noticed In Famous Paintings
2. Full Of Spite; Also A Giant Brain - Sistine Chapel (Michaelangelo)
Michaelangelo wasn't fond of painting the Sistine Chapel. His demonstrations of exasperation, spite and boredom are numerous, so there's a lot you may have missed here.
Painted between 1508 and 1512, the chapel contains many references: in the centrepiece The Creation Of Adam, for example, God is riding an anatomically accurate representation of the human brain.
Minos, the Lord of Hell, is portrayed in the bottom right corner of The Last Judgment as an unsubtle caricature of Biagio da Cesena. Biagio, who ordered many of the nude figures on the chapel's ceiling to be covered up in the name of decency, is shown with asses' ears and a snake nibbling on his junk.
The prophet Zechariah is shown with the face of Pope Julius II, who commissioned Michelangelo to paint the chapel. The two frequently clashed: the pope felt Michelangelo was taking too long about his work, while Michelangelo was of the opinion that it would be nice to be paid for once. A cherub behind Zechariah is performing what you may think of as the universal 'everything is OK' gesture – but in the early 1500s it was known as 'giving the fig', and was about the equivalent of giving two fingers.