Read an Excerpt: 'The Sistine Secrets'

May 2, 2008 — -- In a fascinating new book, Vatican tour guide Roy Doliner and Rabbi Benjamin Blech make the case that Michelangelo embedded coded messages in the frescoes of the Sistine Chapel.

In "The Sistine Secrets: Michelangelo's Forbidden Messages in the Heart of the Vatican," the authors say these hidden messages encourage a bridge between science and religion and between Jews and Christians.

Doliner and Blech say that Michelangelo intended the subversive work to challenge the strictures of the Roman Catholic Church and the pope.

Read excerpts from "The Sistine Secrets" below.

FOREWORD

written by Enrico Bruschini, Official Art Historian of the U.S. Embassy in Rome

Conoscersi è il miglior modo per capirsi -- capirsi è il solo modo per amarsi.

(To know each other is the best way to understand each other -- to understand each other is the only way to love each other.)

This wise and ancient maxim spoke directly to my heart as soon asI began to read this most fascinating book by Rabbi Benjamin Blechand Roy Doliner.

In order to truly know each other, it is indispensable to know howto listen to each other, and above all to want to listen to each other.It seems to me that one of the important achievements of thisgroundbreaking book, among many others, is that it powerfully andclearly fulfills this mission. It pierces through the veil of countlesspuzzlements and hypotheses that, along with indisputable admiration,have always accompanied any visit to the Sistine Chapel. Byfilling in blanks resulting from a lack of understanding of teachingsforeign to Christianity -- but well known to Michelangelo -- the SistineChapel can now speak to us in a way it has never been understoodbefore.

We have always known that Pope Sixtus IV wanted the SistineChapel to have the same dimensions as the Temple of Solomon, justas they were recorded by the prophet Samuel in the Bible in thebook of Kings I (6:2). In the past, art and religion experts explainedthat this was purposely done to demonstrate that there is no contradictionbetween the Old and New Testaments, between the Bibleand the Gospels, between the Jewish and the Christian religions.

Only now, through reading this remarkable book, have Ilearned-with wonder, as an art historian, and with a certain embarrassment and sorrow as a Catholic -- that this construction wasconsidered a religious offense by the Jews. The Talmud, the collectionand explication of the rabbinic traditions, clearly legislatedthat no one could build a "functioning" copy of the Holy Templeof Solomon in any location other than the holy Temple Mount inJerusalem.

It is well to remember that this took place six centuries ago. Inmore recent times, many outdated insensitivities have thankfullybeen replaced with understanding and mutual respect. In this light,Pope John Paul II visited the Great Synagogue of Rome on April 13,1986, and during that historic event the pontiff turned to the Jewishpeople, calling them for the first time, with respect and love, "ourelder brothers and sisters!"

In January 2005, this very same great pontiff, feeling himself nearingthe end of his earthly existence, made a gesture as historic as itwas unique. He invited to the Vatican one hundred and sixty rabbisand cantors from all over the world. Organizing the en counter wasPave the Way Foundation, an international, interreligious associationborn out of the idea of creating and reinforcing bridges between theJewish world and the Christian world. The purpose of the meetingwas for the pope to receive a final blessing from the representativesof our "elder brothers and sisters," while at the same time furtherstrengthening the humanitarian ties between the two faiths.

This historic encounter turned out to be the very last audience ofPope Wojtila with any group. Three Jewish religious leaders hadthe privilege of being the fi rst and only rabbis in the world to give ablessing to a pope in the name of the Jewish people. One of them wasBenjamin Blech, coauthor of this volume, a professor of Talmud atYeshiva University, an internationally noted teacher, lecturer, spiritualleader, and author of numerous books on spirituality read bypeople of all faiths.

I had the pleasure to personally meet the other author of this book,Roy Doliner, the day of the world premiere of the film "The NativityStory." It was the first time the Vatican had officially granted the useof the majestic Hall of Audiences for an artistic-cultural event.

Because of his profound knowledge of Jewish doctrine and history,and as a noted proponent of Talmudic study, Roy had been selectedby the film's producers and its director, Catherine Hardwick,as the official Judaic?religious?historical consultant. For the historicalconsultant dealing with Rome and the life of Herod the Great,they had chosen yours truly. Through the production of "The Nativity,"Roy and I became friends.

That is how on several occasions Roy and I have been able to visitthe Sistine Chapel in a very special way -- after closing hours -- andeach visit has been a chance to see the masterpiece of Michelangeloin a new and different way.

For these reasons, when I was asked to present this book, I acceptedwith pleasure. Having now read this work I find myselfawed not only by the great scholarship of the authors, but also bythe enormous and extremely interesting amount of new historic, artistic,and religious ideas contained within.

I had always wondered why, every time I entered the SistineChapel, not even one figure from the New Testament appeared onthat splendid ceiling. I have finally found the most convincing answershere in this book.

The authors lead us on a true journey of discovery of "other"meanings, of diverse ways of seeing and understanding that whichhad always been right in front of our eyes and that now seems completelydifferent.

With their guidance, we come to realize that Michelangelo performedan immense and ingenious act of concealment within theSistine Chapel in order to convey numerous messages, veiled butpowerful, that preach reconciliation-reconciliation between reasonand faith, between the Jewish Bible and the New Testament, andbetween Christian and Jew. Incredibly, we discover how the artistfelt the need to communicate these dangerous concepts under perilousconditions at great personal risk to himself.

How was Michelangelo able to accomplish this daring act? Theauthors reveal that at times, Michelangelo uses codes or symbolicallusions that are partially hidden; at times, signs that can only bepicked up and understood by certain religious, political, or esotericgroups. Still other times, all one needs is a mind free from preconceptionsand open to new suggestions or ideas in order to understandhis messages. It is even more interesting to realize that thesesymbols and allusions were done without being recognized by hispapal patron. They were audaciously conceived in order to alleviatethe frustration of the artist who, unable to openly have his say,wanted somehow to "declare" his message.

The book leads us, almost by the hand, in a documented but captivatingstyle, to decode the hidden symbols. It gave me great pleasureto join with them, albeit with a bit of perplexity at the outset. Itis certainly not easy to have to take a second look at the reassuringcertainties that have accompanied us through life; but we cannotclose our eyes, our mind, or our heart to those who have seen, from adifferent perspective, that which we have always taken for granted.Even if I might not share all of the interesting, intriguing, and attimes stupefying new ideas, I am certain that this book is truly a newway to view the Sistine Chapel. It will be appreciated and treasuredby all those who are seriously interested in the great ideas of religion,art, and the history of civilization. It will cause heated debatesto spread forth for years to come.

The authors alert us to the fact that in order to completely appreciatethe miracle that is the Sistine Chapel, the visitor needs to comprehendMichelangelo's motivations, his background, his youthfulyears of intellectual ferment in the palace of the de' Medicis in Florence,the still little-known ups and downs of his entire career, inaddition to his fascination with Neo-Platonism and his interest inJudaism and its mystical teachings.

What has hardly ever been stressed before is an idea that Blechand Doliner demonstrate with brilliant insight. While the Renaissancewas certainly influenced by the ancient Greek and Romanmyths, we need to at last acknowledge the remarkable influence,especially on Michelangelo, of the hermetic and esoteric traditionsof the Jewish Kabbalah.

All of this the authors convincingly show us fi nd powerful echoesin the Sistine. Only with this background can we fully understandMichelangelo's meaning and messages. This becomes all the moreevident after the perfect cleaning of the stupendous frescoes ofMichelangelo, which had been obscured by centuries of thick smoke,dust, and misguided attempts at preservation. Only today can wefully savor the beauty and the true meaning of the Sistine Chapel.

After the cleaning, we were able to verify that the dirt had coveredup not only the colors, but had also hidden the numerous messagesthat had already been purposely "veiled," left inside the paintingsby the great Florentine. Now we can say with assurance that theoriginal plan for the Sistine Chapel by its patron, Pope Julius II, waspurposely thwarted. Julius had wanted the Sistine to be the eternalreminder of the extravagant success of the papal family and tofeature Jesus, the Virgin Mary, the twelve apostles, and almost certainlyJohn the Baptist.

For the first time in the history of the Sistine, Blech and Dolinermake us understand just how Michelangelo was able to subvert theentire project in order to secretly promote his own ideals, especiallythose linked to humanism, Neo-Platonism, and universal tolerance.

Clearly they explain how this Florentine genius was able to paintthe largest fresco in the Catholic world without even a single Christianfigure in it and, other than the sibyls, managed to portray onlyfigures from the Hebrew Bible. Even more amazingly, they tell ushow he evaded papal censorship of his opinionated work with hisprivate agenda.

It is also significant that the Sistine frescoes are not only faithfulto the Hebrew Bible, but even more so to the Kabbalah, the Jewishdoctrine of mystical and esoteric character. In this book we f ndcomprehensive replies to most of the questions that for centurieshave tormented experts in theology and art history, as well as theaverage researchers and aficionados.

For example, in the fresco of the Original Sin:

? Why does the serpent have arms?

? Why is the forbidden Tree of Knowledge not an apple tree,but a fig tree?

? In the previous panel, why does Eve seem to be emergingfrom a "side" of Adam, and not from his rib?

The answers are all given by the Kabbalah and described brilliantlyin this book.

Another valuable insight demonstrated by the authors is thecloseness, if not the admiration, that Michelangelo felt for the Jews.I found particularly fascinating their explanation of a detail that wasentirely unknown until now, after the recent cleaning of the frescoes,with the subsequent reappearance of the original colors thathad been darkened and covered by soot and dust. Not to give awaytoo much, it involves a yellow circle on the cloak (to be exact, onthe left arm) of Aminadab, one of the ancestors of Christ, similar tothe yellow badge of shame the Fourth Lateran Council ordered theJews, in 1215, to sew on their clothing. The incredible and unprecedentedphoto can be seen in chapter 9. To make this even more relevant,this portrait of Aminadab is positioned right above the placeof the papal throne of Julius II.

Almost certainly, some of the instructors in the school of the de'Medicis were rabbis and had explained to Michelangelo about theHebrew alphabet and the esoteric significance of each letter. Thisis amply demonstrated by the Hebrew letters that are hidden in thegestures and the stances of many figures in the paintings.

Even in The Last Judgment, the influence of Jewish culture is quiteevident. The enormous fresco is clearly in the shape of the Tablets ofthe Law of Moses. This is due not only to the form of the chapel, butalso to the fact that Michelangelo, before painting the Judgment, hadcovered over the two windows that were a large part of the wall overthe altar, and had a new wall built on top of the original one.

One exquisite final touch: Few if any people have noticed thatMichelangelo placed two Jews in Paradise, very close to the powerfulfi gure of Jesus. If you look carefully, over the shoulder of theyouthful blond Christ and painted above St. Peter, two Jews arequite clearly displayed -- you can see them in the photo at the beginningof chapter 15. They are easily recognizable not only for theircharacteristic facial traits, but also because the first man is wearingthe typical double-pointed hat that Jewish males were forced to puton, in order to reinforce the medieval prejudice that these people,being the offspring of the devil, had horns. The second man has onthe yellow cap that the Jews were forced to wear in public.

At the end of this fascinating reading experience, the readers willrealize that Rabbi Benjamin Blech and Roy Doliner have guided usto see in a brand-new light not only the Sistine Chapel but also mostof Michelangelo's artwork, including the monument to Julius II, thefamous Moses, and the various statues of the pietà, scattered aboutin Italy.

Just as the work of Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapel changedforever the world of art, so will this book change forever the way toview and, above all, to understand the work of Michelangelo!

PREFACE

But very few of the millions of awestruck spectators who enterthe Sistine know that the pope's own chapel, built in the heart ofthe Vatican, is a full-size copy of the Holy of Holies in Solomon'sancient Temple in Jerusalem.

They would also surely be amazed to discover that Michelangelohimself embedded secret messages inside the chapel. Even moreshocking, these messages espoused ideas that struck at the heart ofthe papacy.

Unknown to most viewers is the dramatic truth that these frescoescontain a lost mystical message of universal love, dangerously contraryto Church doctrine in Michelangelo's day, but true to the originalteachings of the Bible as well as to much of contemporary liberalChristian thought.

Driven by the truths he had come to recognize during his years ofstudy in private nontraditional schooling in Florence, truths rootedin his involvement with Judaic texts as well as Kabbalistic trainingthat conflicted with approved Christian doctrine, Michelangelo needed to find a way to let viewers discern what he truly believed.

He could not allow the Church to forever silence his soul. And whatthe Church would not permit him to communicate openly, he ingeniouslyfound a way to convey to those diligent enough to learnhis secret language.

Unfortunately these messages were lost and went unheeded forfive centuries. The man famous for defining genius as "eternal patience"must have found solace for his inability to voice his disagreementwith the Vatican in the hope that eventually there would bethose who would "crack his code" and grasp what he was reallysaying. Only now, thanks to diligent scholarship as well as the newclarity afforded by the chapel's extensive cleaning, have they beenrediscovered and deciphered. Michelangelo spoke truth to power,and his insights, ingeniously concealed in his work, can at last beheard.

All this is not speculative fiction, but, as we will convincinglyprove, completely, incredibly, true.

This is the startling and provocative thesis that "The Sistine Secrets"will for the first time reveal -- and forcefully demonstrate. It willshow how Michelangelo incorporated into his religious masterpiecea stunning number of hidden messages to the Church of his time,messages that resonate to this day with their daring appeal for reconciliation between reason and faith, between the Hebrew Bibleand the New Testament, and among all those who share a sincerequest for true faith and ser vice of God.

Prepare to unlearn everything that you thought you knew aboutthe Sistine Chapel and Michelangelo's masterpieces. Just as the recentcleaning of the frescoes removed layer after layer of tarnish anddarkness accumulated over the centuries, this book will endeavor toremove centuries of prejudice, censorship, and ignorance from oneof the world's most famous and beloved art treasures.We invite you to join us on an incredible journey of discovery.

-The Authors

Excerpted from "THE SISTINE SECRETS: Michelangelo's Forbidden Messages in the Heart of the Vatica,"n by Benjamin Blech and Roy Doliner, Foreword by Enrico Bruschini, Official Art Historian of the U.S. Embassy in Rome, published by HarperOne.