Nude: A Critical History the

Nude: A Critical History The Pope Julius II, Michelangelo and the pilgrims who came to Rome after he finished the painting of the Sistine Chapel in the sixteenth century, were all under the powerful impression left by the stories told by the images masterfully created on the ceiling. Michelangelo is considered the first artist to have understood the importance of the human body in its representation as a nude in art.

The Renaissance period revived the Greek and the Roman classics and brought the beauty of the human body in various representations back on the canvas and in the workshops of artists of various kinds. Bernard Berenson goes as far as concluding that Michelangelo saw in the human body the supreme form of art and chose to study it in the tiniest details possible in order to achieve perfection. The perfect rendering of the human body equaled the perfect work of art.

The importance of "life confirming" and "life enhancing" was according to Berenson expressed in Michelangelo's work by his obsession with the human body. The sixteenth century was the era of awakening on many levels in the history of humanity. The Renaissance period swept the world with new ideas revived from the old classics, inventions and innovations that will for ever change the face of the world and put it on a new course.

The middle Ages taught human beings to be humble and repent in order to have a chance at the Judgment Day. Renaissance brought new ideas and forms of expression to life and changed the way people envisioned themselves and their place in the order of things. It gave humanity a central place in the universe instead of leaving it as a complementary form of existence.

The human body in its necked form was beginning to represent the focus of the artistic expression in its struggle to find the best representation and the means to bring the artistic creation to the public. Bernard Berenson points out that the nudes in Michelangelo's art works, especially in his paintings of the Sistine Chapel summarize "manliness, robustness, effectiveness, the fulfillment of our dream of a great soul inhabiting a great body" (Berenson, 169).

He continues remarking that "Michelangelo completed what Masaccio had begun, the creation of the type of man best fitted to subdue and control the earth, and, who knows! Perhaps more than the earth"(idem, 169). The hopes and aspiration of a great period in the history of the human kind were reaching no limits. The public was glad to enjoy the beauty of the human body and experience feelings of gratitude as to the genius of the artist.

Those who came to Vatican and admired the paintings on the Sistine chapel were full of piety and devoted to religious experiences, but they were also bereaved by the beauty of the art work itself. Adam was one of the central figures and it represented humanity in its essence. The same nude representing Adam brings a different message to the modern viewer in the art work created by James Cauty.

The stamp series created for the Cautese National Stamp Reserve includes a section entitled "Collapse and Closure." The "Over and Out" stamp represents Adam as depicted by Michelangelo on in the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, wearing a gas mask and socks and brought to life by a God with Mickey Mouse's head. The modern viewer is no longer under the impressions left by religious ecstasy the pilgrims that came to Rome in the sixteenth century were experiencing.

Although religion has not cease to manifest itself on many levels and in many parts of the world, the modern times are more and more under the influence of theories that relate to Darwin and less ready to fall under the hopes brought by belief in a superior power represented by God. Michelangelo's Adam was beautiful in his humanity as well as in his super-human spirit inspired by God's work.

Jimmy Cauty's Adam is wearing a gas mask and socks and is brought to life by the most popular cartoon character ever. The beauty of the human body is bought into derision by its wearing socks and the loss of hope for the earth is represented by the gas mask. Adam is no longer necked, his wardrobe consists of a mask and socks. An imaginary character is bringing him to life, while two cans of spray lay beside him.

The central character in the episode of creation does not life too seriously since it did not even take the socks out. Adam's whole attitude is the very expression of carelessness and a certain degree of laziness. He leaves himself in the hands of a cartoon character to save him from destruction. Five centuries later, the Creation episode of the Sistine Chapel becomes a motif for a pop artist who wants to present the world with the results of its foolishness and lack of better judgment.

The capital of "western Christendom" was presented to the Christian world by Pope Julius II through its many emissaries among whom: artists. Vatican was a city of pilgrimage and the symbols represented in artworks had to be powerful and up-to-date. On a different scale,, but almost as powerful in its message, Jimmy Cauty depicted Adam, the representation of our collective carelessness and foolishness when it comes to the saving of our own world, being given spirit by a Mickey Mouse as a Supreme Creator.

If one would take the image seriously and consider Mickey as the symbol of innocence, the image could be interpreted as the corrupted spirit of mankind being saved by innocence. But, Mickey Mouse represented numerous other often contradictory theories. The necked image of an adult young man who lies under a Mickey Mouse God is also grotesque. Its initial graciousness and greatness is reduced to a great deal by the fact that it wears socks.

The mask is another element that adds to the impression of witnessing something that is rather suggesting the idea of imperfection than what the image originally signified. The dignity and beauty of the human body and the greatness of the combination between physical perfection and spirit are lost during the five hundred years of degradation and it appears as if only Mickey Mouse is capable of saving what is left of it.

The message was sent, it is "over and out." The collapse and Closure series are created to be depicted on stamps. The meanings are obviously.