WelCom February 2022
Dr Christopher Longhurst
The exhibition ‘Michelangelo: A Different View’ at Auckland’s Aotea Centre this summer has attracted unprecedented interest from around 18,000 visitors. The exhibition, which concluded at the end of January, was born out of an idea from Stewart and Tricia Macpherson’s The Stetson Group, to give New Zealanders an opportunity to see up close and from ‘a different view’ the Florentine sculptor’s sumptuous frescoes in the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel.
As participants flocked to see what lies behind the literal meaning of Michelangelo’s highly allegorical frescoes, they discovered a synthesis of diverse branches of knowledge informing complex theological ideas such as the meaning of Genesis 1:26: ‘Let us make humans (‘ā·–dām/anthrōpon) in our image, according to our likeness.’
More than a tremendous success as far as art exhibits go, ‘Michelangelo: A Different View’ has provided the public with philosophical and theological knowledge prior to any learned perception of what belief in God or creation could possibly mean. It was exciting to see some viewers interpret the Creation of Adam from Māori perspectives: Sky Father Ranginui and Earth Mother Papatūānuku separating as a moral rational creature is born, te tangāta.
The Stetson Group has offered New Zealanders not only another angle to physically view Michelangelo’s ceiling, but also the chance to discover again how one of the most complex ideas in the history of civilisation – the human as an image of the divine, is accessible through studies in human biology, physiology, cognitive psychology, obstetrics, neuro-physics, quantum chemistry, heliocentricity, philosophy, and cosmogony all synthesised through theology in an early sixteenth century painting. In the effect, Michelangelo made these diverse fields of knowledge universus, ‘turned towards’ (versare) the ‘one’ (uni), from which we get the word ‘university.’ He essentially transformed the popes’ chapel at the Vatican into a beautiful micro-university.
Dr Christopher Longhurst, Te Kupenga – Catholic Theological College lecturer and researcher, was a VIP Tours Guide for ‘Michelangelo: A Different View’, Auckland, January 2022. He spent 17 years conducting tours of the Vatican and the Sistine Chapel.