Women in the Sistine chapel
Posted on 20. Apr, 2017, in Art, Christian Values, Community, Feminism/Women in the Church, Gospel Values, VaticanComments Off on Women in the Sistine chapel
Continuing on our series looking at women in Church art, we draw our attention today to the Sistine Chapel, in particular the ceiling, painted by Michelangelo. The ceiling has 300 figures and took over four years to execute. One of the things artist Eve Parnell, notes about the ceiling is the large number of women who are represented – women of all ages, shapes and sizes. A type of realistic representation of women that would scarcely been seen in our modern, usually photoshopped images.
She discusses the meaning of this with Miriam Gormally as well as looking at the story of the Sistine Chapel in general, examining the narrative of how God created the world perfectly, but how we fell into sin and disgrace and were punished. She also explains how, despite it being one of Michelangelo’s best-known works, he never really wanted to paint the ceiling in the first place!