Essay/Term paper: Art in the bible

Essay, term paper, research paper:  Religion

Art in the Bible


An abstract look at a renaissance perception of the Bible

Table of Contents

Part 1 The Painting

Part 2 A compalation of abstract ideas

Part 3 Components of the picture

Part 4 A few thesis statements

Part 5 The essay

Art in the Bible

Many percieve this world as completly dichotomus. For many people they
will go through their whole life thinking that there is nothing in between black
and white. This may present a formidable situation for many, however, for
Michelangelo this was not clear enough. He took the Christian religion that was
important to him and the society that he lived in and percieved it a way more
accoustomed to the modern world. He created a sense of greyness in a world that
was previously percieved as only black and white. In his depiction of Adam and
Eve being expelled from the garden of Eden he sets up a dichotomus world but
through subtile and not so subtile hints he shows the observer that he doesn't
percieve the world in this way. He creates this grey world to show the observer
that the world is not all really black and white.

The painting is really divided into two separate pictures. One depictng
the "good" scene inside the Garden of Eden. The other side depicting the "bad"
scence, outside the garden of Eden. Michelangelo splits the picture like this so
that 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 this
so that people will have something to relate to. Once this has been achieved he
can continue to paint in the greyness whick joins the good and the evil. The
dichotomus world, however, serves a very important purpose in this picture. It
sets the defination of right and wrong. Michelangelo is trying to say that there
is not eivil and that there is no good. He knows that this cant be true. However
Michelangelo defines a black and a white, as two very separate and istinct
things. He does this by pining the picture in two parts and thus enabiling us to
see the difference. Once we have seen this very obvious difference we are
prepared to look at they grey.

Through the use of placement of objects in the picture Michelangelo is
able to define both the good and the evil as well as the surrounding grey. The
good side poses an arry of items which are asscociated with the good of the
garden. The evil side poses a new set of objects that ore asscociated the the
evil and darkness of the world that we are living in. For example in the good
side the tree of knowledge of good and evil is very bushy and green. The leaves
are depicted as having a life like splendor andlook as if they are real. These
leaves 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 or
Eden. On the other hand behind Eve sits a dear barren tree. This tree is much
smaller but still exists in this apparent world of perfect goodness. The tree
has no leaves on, and looks quite barren. The tree also has an unintresting
charecteristicabout it. Having no branches it looks quite dark. Tthe shading of
the trunk of the tree also depicts this. The brown is o a much deeper shade than
of the the tree of knowledge of good and evil. This darkenss thank then be taken
to represent the evil or greyness that occurs in the dichotomus world. The tree
represents the hardships of people because they sinned. It is part of the "dust
to dust ashes to ashes" parable that God told Adam and Eve. There is also
evidence of this in the other side of the painting too.