An abstract look at a renaissance perception of the BibleTable of ContentsPart 1 The PaintingPart 2 A compalation of abstract ideasPart 3 Components of the picturePart 4 A few thesis statementsPart 5 The essayArt in the BibleMany percieve this world as completly dichotomus. For many people theywill go through their whole life thinking that there is nothing in between blackand white. This may present a formidable situation for many, however, forMichelangelo this was not clear enough. He took the Christian religion that wasimportant to him and the society that he lived in and percieved it a way moreaccoustomed to the modern world. He created a sense of greyness in a world thatwas previously percieved as only black and white. In his depiction of Adam andEve being expelled from the garden of Eden he sets up a dichotomus world butthrough subtile and not so subtile hints he shows the observer that he doesn’tpercieve the world in this way. He creates this grey world to show the observerthatthe world is not all really black and white.
The painting is really divided into two separate pictures. One depictngthe good scene inside the Garden of Eden. The other side depicting the badscence, outside the garden of Eden. Michelangelo splits the picture like this sothat he can create the dichotomus world on which his painting will be based.
Although the whole theme is the non-dichotomusness of the world he must do thisso that people will have something to relate to. Once this has been achieved hecan continue to paint in the greyness whick joins the good and the evil. Thedichotomus world, however, serves a very important purpose in this picture. Itsets the defination of right and wrong. Michelangelo is trying to say that thereis not eivil and that there is no good. He knows that this cant be true. HoweverMichelangelo defines a black and a white, as two very separate and istinctthings. He does this by pining the picture in two parts and thus enabiling us tosee the difference. Once we have seen this very obvious difference we areprepared to look at they grey.
Through the use of placement of objects in the picture Michelangelo isable to define both the good and the evil as well as the surrounding grey. Thegood side poses an arry of items which are asscociated with the good of thegarden. The evil side poses a new set of objects that ore asscociated the theevil and darkness of the world that we are living in. For example in the goodside the tree of knowledge of good and evil is very bushy and green. The leavesare depicted as having a life like splendor andlook as if they are real. Theseleaves cover a large proportion of that side of the painting , allmost 1/3.
These are importain because they denote the life like quality of the garden orEden. On the other hand behind Eve sits a dear barren tree. This tree is muchsmaller but still exists in this apparent world of perfect goodness. The treehas no leaves on, and looks quite barren. The tree also has an unintrestingcharecteristicabout it. Having no branches it looks quite dark. Tthe shading ofthe trunk of the tree also depicts this. The brown is o a much deeper shade thanof the the tree of knowledge of good and evil. This darkenss thank then be takento represent the evil or greyness that occurs in the dichotomus world. The treerepresents the hardships of people because they sinned. It is part of the dustto dust ashes to ashes parable that God told Adam and Eve. There is alsoevidence of this in the other side of the painting too.
