Blog Post 7- Mural Thoughts

I was completing this weekend's discussion questions and found the questions on murals to be intriguing so why not write about some of my thoughts for my blog post this weekend. I have not actually seen any murals in person to my knowledge, which is very sad. One of the questions was what is a mural, and I thought that a mural was a work of art completed on a permanent surface, such as a wall or ceiling. The one example I could think of was the Sistine Chapel. I remembered having to do a project on it my junior year of high school in World History class and found some of the murals pretty interesting. I am pretty sure the paintings on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel are considered to be murals, if not, they should be. 

I specifically remember one of the images and murals from the Sistine Chapel being pretty powerful and interesting to me. It is the one about the origin of sin and the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden. By the way, Michelangelo painted all of these images, and they all are representations of stories from  the Bible. 

The Fall and Expulsion from the Garden of Eden

This mural depicts the fall and the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden. I really enjoy Michelangelo's representation of this scene from the Bible and the powerful imagery he uses in this picture. Obviously, one of the most salient features of this mural is the snake-like human, or the human-like snake (whatever you think). This image is also kind of divided into thirds, and it displays two different scenes and times simultaneously. The leftmost third of this image shows Adam and Eve before the fall, created in God's image, perfect and pure. It shows them falling into temptation and taking from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the one thing God specifically said not to do... In the middle third is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and a snake-like human creature reaching out to Eve. One of the most interesting parts of this image is definitely this creature wrapping around the tree with the body of a snake. Then, the rightmost third of the mural depicts Adam and Eve again, being banished from the garden by the cherub who is pointing the way out with a sword-like thing. Notice how before the fall, Adam and Eve were brighter colors and after the fall, they turned to darker colors. I believe this represents the sin that occurred and the change that will no be eternal. Also, in the left of the picture, the background behind Adam and Eve is rocks and leaves while the right side is barren, because of the fall and the sin that Adam and Eve committed. Another point that may be significant, is that the tempter in the middle, has female-like characteristics. This might be because of the fact that Eve was the one that was tempted first and gave the apple to Adam. I really enjoy this depiction of a very important scene from Genesis Chapter 3 of the Bible which I am familiar with. There is a lot more symbolism in this mural that you can probably see as well. I really enjoy the symbolism and powerful imagery that Michelangelo uses in this classic story. 

Although, this is not an image from Latin America, it is the one mural that I could think of that is very interesting to me! I consider this practice for the murals that we are going to look at this coming week. It shows that murals generally use symbolism and powerful pictures to get across their point and to convey the artists ideas. I hope you enjoyed this image as I do and can see the power in this important scene from history. I am excited to see some of the murals from Latin America this week and the ideas that they attempt to convey to the the viewers.