Student finds hidden images in Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel paintings

With paintings as famous as Michelangelo’s “The Creation of Adam” and “The Fall and Expulsion from Garden of Eden,” many scholars have developed insights and theories on the artist’s intentions and reflections. On Wednesday in the Harrison Rooftop Lounge, College senior Ola Osinaike publicly revealed his own artistic interpretation of Michelangelo’s paintings on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.

A cinema studies major, Osinaike recognized a pattern among numerous Michelangelo paintings and hypothesized that a hidden image would form when overlapping the two halves of each painting. “I wrote a screenplay about ‘The Creation of Adam’ painting, and I kind of just came upon the discovery having revisited the image so many times,” he said. “[But] I don’t want to play out my findings as some grand conspiracy because the technique is quite simple.”

Beginning with the four largest paintings on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel — “The Creation of Adam,” “The Fall and Expulsion from Garden of Eden,” “The Flood” and “Creation of the Sun, Moon and Planets” — he wondered if Michelangelo had drawn separate images and combined them to create his paintings, as well as a hidden message.

“The four largest paintings, all of which are scenes from Genesis, [were] divided into a clear left and a clear right, and because Michelangelo’s a painter, he must have drawn or sketched them out beforehand,” Osinaike said. “Paper can be transparent so it’s not implausible that he drew out the paintings and then made the paintings have a hidden message inside of them.”

In his presentation, Osinaike specifically pointed to “The Creation of Adam” and pointed out that dividing the painting in half and overlapping these parts formed a new image that refers to the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse in the Bible. A Christian himself, he was able to recognize these biblical references in the hidden messages.

“The new images speak for themselves, to a deeper meaning, and have their own revelation,” Osinaike said. “Like with the horsemen, there’s no way that the image comes together out of random looks — Michelangelo obviously designed it to be that way ... he also leads hints on how to line up the image.”

So far, Osinaike has created 38 reinterpretations of the paintings in the Sistine Chapel, but one obstacle he encountered was finding a quality copy of the images online. “They need to be super high quality for all the shades to function and work out as they’re supposed to,” he said. “The shadows serve a distinct function, but if I don’t have a high enough quality image, then the new image won’t be able to be arranged right.”

Moving forward, Osinaike wishes to present the juxtaposition of the original versions of these paintings with his interpretations in galleries and museums across the world. He continues to search for opportunities to share this perspective on such historical art, and hopes to open an exhibit at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.