It is advertised as "Art of Biblical Proportions," an exhibit of Michelangelo's masterpieces, frescoes painted in the Sistine Chapel. While somewhat overwhelming on site, lingering reflections appear here.

San Antonio is host to a touring exhibit of high-resolution photographs of Michelangelo’s frescoes from the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel – both the ceiling and the Last Judgment painted on the altar wall. Visitors experience the visual majesty, tragedy, and passion up close with a remarkable audio guide, much of it referring to the hidden symbolism and mysteries of the images. Installed in a local mansion, the Lambermont Estate, the exhibit brought the ancient visual experience into the realm of reality.

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Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564) conveyed through his classically inspired figures in the Sistine ceiling an epic strength that gave mankind an almost divine quality, although constrained by a human destiny.

The majesty of divine power pictured in the “Creation of the Sun, Moon, and Planets” brings alive the Genesis 1 creation story:

The tragedy of fear, desperation, and relief is seen in the faces of Babylonians grasping for survival and the people reaching safety in the arc. A saga of humanity is captured in the image of “The Flood”:

The passion of final judgment – bliss and hopelessness – creates a panorama of souls’ final destination. In the center of the composition stands Christ, surrounded by mankind, powerless and obeying the strong gesture of the Godhead. The human race is shown either rising from Earth to Paradise or being plunged down into Hell. Existential finality is portrayed in “The Last Judgment”:

Many of us are familiar with these stories of God, the world, and – us – but being up close and personal with the images reminds us to return more closely and intimately to the one story that is our story, the reason for our being.

Eve sits with her back to the tempter, looks over her shoulder, reaches back, and receives the offered fruit. Adam, in contrast, grips a limb of the tree God had forbidden him to touch, pulls himself up, and grabs what he wants. In one image, Michelangelo offers two astute insights into human sin.

Sometimes, like Eve, we are passive, overly passive. Sitting around, we hear the whispering voice of temptation. We could summon the will to ignore it, but we don’t. We turn to look. We reach out, curious to sample what is offered. “What could it hurt, just this once?” There are subtleties to Eve’s sin, just as there are to her posture: turned away, yet reaching back, a pensive look on her face, only thumb and forefinger open to test the proffered fruit.

No subtlety at all from Adam. Mouth open, panting, he pulls himself up, straining to get what he wants. “Grab whatever you can get,” seems to be his motto, as it has been for so many of his descendants ever since. Consequences be damned, he’s going to take what he wants. No passivity here; Adam is all muscular assertiveness. Forget whatever you may have learned, Michelangelo seems to be saying, about Adam having been tempted by Eve. While she peeks over her shoulder at the forbidden fruit, Adam barges in, whole hog, asserting his self-appointed “right” to do (take, possess, or devour) anything he desires.

Do you recognize yourself in either Eve or Adam? Perhaps I flatter myself, but I don’t think I’m such a blatant sinner as Adam in this picture. But Eve? Just taking a peek over her shoulder, touching the fruit lightly with thumb and forefinger? Yes, I can see the family resemblance there. And you?

-- Bill

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