Department of Neurosurgery, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland 21218, USA.
Neurosurgery. 2010 May;66(5):851-61; discussion 860-1. doi: 10.1227/01.NEU.0000368101.34523.E1.
Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564) was a master anatomist as well as an artistic genius. He dissected cadavers numerous times and developed a profound understanding of human anatomy. From 1508 to 1512, Michelangelo painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Rome. His Sistine Chapel frescoes are considered one of the monumental achievements of Renaissance art. In the winter of 1511, Michelangelo entered the final stages of the Sistine Chapel project and painted 4 frescoes along the longitudinal apex of the vault, which completed a series of 9 central panels depicting scenes from the Book of Genesis. It is reported that Michelangelo concealed an image of the brain in the first of these last 4 panels, namely, the Creation of Adam. Here we present evidence that he concealed another neuronanatomic structure in the final panel of this series, the Separation of Light From Darkness, specifically a ventral view of the brainstem. The Separation of Light From Darkness is an important panel in the Sistine Chapel iconography because it depicts the beginning of Creation and is located directly above the altar. We propose that Michelangelo, a deeply religious man and an accomplished anatomist, intended to enhance the meaning of this iconographically critical panel and possibly document his anatomic accomplishments by concealing this sophisticated neuroanatomic rendering within the image of God.
米开朗基罗（1475-1564 年）是一位杰出的解剖学家和艺术天才。他多次解剖尸体，对人体解剖学有了深刻的理解。1508 年至 1512 年，米开朗基罗在罗马西斯廷教堂的天花板上作画。他的西斯廷教堂壁画被认为是文艺复兴艺术的重要成就之一。1511 年冬天，米开朗基罗进入西斯廷教堂项目的最后阶段，在拱顶的纵向顶点绘制了 4 幅壁画，完成了一系列描绘《创世纪》场景的 9 个中央面板。据报道，米开朗基罗在这最后 4 个面板中的第一个隐藏了一个大脑的图像，即《亚当的创造》。在这里，我们提供证据表明，他在该系列的最后一个面板中隐藏了另一个神经解剖结构，即《光明与黑暗的分离》，具体来说是脑干的腹视图。《光明与黑暗的分离》是西斯廷教堂图像学中的一个重要面板，因为它描绘了创世的开始，位于祭坛正上方。我们认为，米开朗基罗是一个虔诚的人，也是一位杰出的解剖学家，他意图通过在上帝的形象中隐藏这个复杂的神经解剖学图像，来增强这个图像学关键面板的意义，并可能记录他的解剖学成就。
