Last Judgement. Fresco in the Sistene Chapel by Michelangelo.

IN THE MIDST OF ALL assuredly dwells the Sun. For in this most beautiful who would place this luminary in any other or better position from which he can illuminate the whole at once? Indeed, some rightly call Him the Light of the World, others, the Mind or ruler of the Universe: Trismegistus names him the visible God, Sophocles’ Electra calls him the all-seeing. So indeed the Sun remains, as if in his kingly dominion, governing the family of Heavenly bodies which circles around him.

The most interesting talk of the NAM historical session was the excellently titled Michelangelo Code. Valerie Shrimplin based her talk on part of her PhD thesis Sun Symbolism and Cosmology in Michelangelo’s ‘Last Judgement’ available from Truman State University Press. It tackles something that initially doesn’t seem to be a problem. She also covers this in her paper of the same title in the Sixteenth Century Journal (Vol 21.4 1990 pp 607-44 JSTOR) which I’ve lifted the above quote from. The text above seems a reasonable description of Michelangelo’s Last Judgement. In fact it’s from De Revolutionibus, by Nicholas Copernicus describing his heliocentric cosmology. Did Michelangelo paint Copernicus’s heavens More >