Is it Michelangelo himself upon one of the horses in "The Crucifiction of St. Peter"?
Monkey’s commentary on the discovery of Michelangelo’s face in his creation “The Crucifixion of St. Peter” :
Could it be true that Michelangelo was to art as Hitchcock was to film? Or Steven King, even? A cameo, a glimpse, a confirmation to the egocentricities of artists everywhere? Oh, how Monkey loves the thought of this! That Michelangelo, with his love of the male form and face, loved his own best! Oh, if indeed that Michelangelo painted his face and figure within “The Crucifixtion of St. Peter”, then could his own face be witness to “The Conversion of Saul”. Could he, for all of these years, have been spying on the Popes of the Catholic Church, glowering from the heights of the ceiling in the Sistine Chapel, as well? Or must we look upon the more intimate areas of his “David”, perhaps, to find his face carved amid the form of his beloved male figure? Oh, Michelangelo, the audacity! The curiosity that you have instilled in a monkey who lives 500 years past your time on earth! When I look upon your glorious creations, I will forever wonder if you are peering back at me, hidden in an angel’s face or in a cherub’s chub, curious to who your admirers are five centuries past your own! Or perhaps this was not it at all. Perhaps, Monkey thinks, like Keats you longed for eternity, and this is why you did it! To remain past your “generation’s waste” so that you may whisper to the worshippers of God himself for countless generations. And if this is it, what have you whispered all these years to the unsuspecting? What thoughts have you put in their heads as they prayed below you? Which subliminal teasings have you uttered? We are listening, now. We are listening, so tell us what you wished to all those years ago.
Monkey asks his readers to suggest, perhaps, why Michelangelo may have placed his face in a painting such as this? And while you do that, I’ll eat a banana.
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