Category: Michelangelo

The Fruit and the Fall

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Between apple season and my current Bible Study on the book of Genesis, I have got to get some Adam and Eve stuff out of my system! First, let’s talk apples. My friend and I carpooled to a cross-country meet an hour away last night and we talked about apples almost the whole way home. Who knew the fruit could incite such passion?! (Answer: Adam. Eve. Serpent. God.) As we discussed, she sent me a chart she had to help with all apple-centric decisions. Of which there are many this time of year. Here is the chart, in case you too are wondering where Jonagolds fall in the rankings. 

This makes me hungry for pie.

I am also studying the fall of mankind in my Bible Study. Just a fun, light-hearted topic to ponder on the daily! It reminded me of this piece of art I love in the Chicago Institute of Art. Or pieces, I suppose. Lucas Cranach the Elder painted several versions of Adam and Eve, sometimes in one portrait, sometimes in two. Chicago has Adam and Eve in separate frames, but obviously together. In all Cranach’s versions, Eve has red hair. (Only notable for people with red hair, I know.)

Eve’s portrait gives us more information about what’s happening. I had to zoom in, but there is a bite already taken from the apple so she has fallen, but there is still hope for Adam. I think Cranach really captured Adam’s emotion well. With his hand close to his heart he looks a little horrified, but his face looks soft and ready to try that tasty Honeycrisp (don’t you think it was a Honeycrisp?) 

Next we’ve got… the Sistine Chapel. Surely, I’ve written about this before? Eve is not a redhead in this painting because she hasn’t sinned yet. In fact, she hasn’t even been created. If we’re being honest, I didn’t know until recently Eve was even in this painting! I must have been distracted by Adam (ow ow!) But she’s there, tucked under God’s arm, waiting to exist. There is a theory that Michelangelo gave Adam an extra rib on his left to symbolize the creation of Eve from said rib. I can’t see an extra rib, but I hope it’s a true theory, because that is a very clever idea. 

Lastly, The Garden of Eden with the Fall of Man. How’s that for a succinct title? I just learned about this painting and I love it. Adam is jacked, even though Genesis says nothing of a nearby Crossfit. And the animals? Gorgeous. Apparently there are some grapes in there somewhere that represent wine, which represents Jesus’ blood. I sure do love some good, old-fashioned Christian symbolism in a painting! Jan Brueghel the Elder did the flora and fauna in this painting and Peter Paul Rubens did the figures. That’s an even better collaboration than Doja Cat and Niki Minaj if you ask me! 

*A PSA: You can get all kinds of Eve-as-a-Temptress art on Etsy. I don’t care to remember the downfall of humanity every time I walk through my hallway, but if that’s the motif you’re going for…

Rain, Rain, Go Away

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I don’t know about you, but we’ve had quite a wet spring. Here are a few ways in which it has inconvenienced me:

1. My dog won’t go to the bathroom outside when it is raining, or when the grass is wet. Inside only!
2. I have to comfort bummed out daughters, who have to have indoor recess, or abbreviated field days.
3. Treadmill running < Outdoor running.
4. My basement flooded.

That last one is the biggie. We came home from our Memorial Day weekend getaway to a drenched basement. Thankfully, our most important things are up high enough that they were fine, but there were some causalities, and moving everything into my garage to dry was quite inconvenient (do you know how heavy a water-logged hockey bag, full of equipment is? Very.) The most heartbreaking part for me were the books we had to throw away. 

If you’ve ever lived through an actual flood, you probably want to wring my neck. Or dunk me in the five feet of water you had to deal with. I’m sorry. The real point of my writing about the flood, is that floods have inspired some beautiful artwork. The most famous is probably The Deluge in the Sistine Chapel.

Michelangelo sure can draw a naked body, amiright?

I prefer not to think about the horror of the actual flooding. The Deluge is just a little too real for me. How about this less violent, more peaceful painting by Alfred Sisley?

Boat in the Flood at Port Marly: If only floods left us all so serene.
We can imagine everybody in town got to high ground in time (and took all their valuables with them!) and are now just enjoying a lovely paddle on the new lake. Those happy, fluffy clouds tell me their damage was minimal, and they all had flood insurance!