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| The Sistine Secrets: Michelangelo's Forbidden Messages in the Heart of the Vatican | 
 enlarge | Authors: Benjamin Blech, Roy Doliner
Publisher: HarperOne
Category: Book
List Price: $26.95
Buy New: $14.60
You Save: $12.35 (46%)
New (36) Used (12) Collectible (2) from $13.00
Avg. Customer Rating:  31 reviews
Sales Rank: 18655
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 336
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.3
Dimensions (in): 8.9 x 5.8 x 1.3
ISBN: 0061469041
Dewey Decimal Number: 759.5
EAN: 9780061469046
ASIN: 0061469041
Publication Date: May 1, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: NEW: NEVER READ...!!!!.(may have faint shelf wear from bookstore)..ALL ORDERS SHIP SAME OR NEXT BUSINESS DAY, FREE POSTAL DELIVERY CONFIRMATION FOR U.S. ORDERS, TOP CUSTOMER SERVICE !!!!
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| Customer Reviews:
 Making the Abstract, concrete: research for the gentle reader May 6, 2008
21 out of 29 found this review helpful
I have recently finished "The Sistine Secrets" and find it to be artfully crafted, intelligently written and accurate in its research. The writers have something of import to say and they say it well. Unlike the Da Vinci Code this book inspires the reader to think of "treasure" in terms of truth seeking rather than gold. Yet it captures the imagination with as much excitement. I particularly find the tie-in to Deaf cultural studies and the references to the refined gestural communication of their language to be a fascinating angle for analyzing the images in question. The ability to combine such a range of disciplines into a cohesive "map" for the reader to follow the research is brilliantly done and will have appeal to both the serious scholar and the gentle reader of more popular fare. These authors are able to take abstract images and compellingly suggest concrete reasons for the artistic positional/gestural choices, historical context, personal artists' perspective, political impact and much more. You may be excited, angered, thrilled, humored or shocked by the revelations in this book but as the authors say at the end of the last chapter:
"All the world is a very narrow bridge - the point is this - to have no fear."
The exploration of truth requires a lack of fear for what it might expose.
Luane Davis Haggerty Ph.D.
Leadership and Change through the Arts, Antioch University
Assistant Professor of Creative and Cultural Studies
National Technical Institute of the Deaf at Rochester Institute of Technology
Time well spent May 6, 2008
20 out of 27 found this review helpful
I saw the 20/20 Special and was intrigued.
The scholars interviewed seemed open to at least some of the ideas. (And where they weren't, or expressed doubt, I thought the evidence could go either way).
Since I also felt the authors came off well, I spent Sunday reading the book.
Time well spent.
It was smart, insightful, and eye opening.
You don't have to agree with every conclusion to walk away convinced of many, and having learned a lot.
It's a fascinating book and topic and I would encourage everyone to read the book and draw your own conclusion...the summaries, mine or anyone else's, don't nearly do this book justice.
Innovative May 6, 2008
20 out of 26 found this review helpful
The authors have done a fantastic job presenting material-whether one agrees or disagrees-that is both eye-opening and informative. The cross-section of art and religion is well-known but this book takes it to another level. Read the book and draw your own conclusions. The book cover is spectacular!
The Riddle is Solved May 6, 2008
20 out of 29 found this review helpful
I just finished reading this book - and now I know the answer to what perplexed me when I read some of the previous reviews on Amazon.
This book is BRILLIANT, entertaining, very erudite - as per the approbation by the great Michaelangelo scholar Enrico Brushini who wrote a very complimentary forward - and highly readable. So how come some reviewers trashed it in the most disrespectful manner, even as a slew of others gave it 5 stars?
Because this book is an eye-opener and goes against traditional interpretations, so people with an ax to grind who are close-minded of those with a specific agenda, who believe, wrongly, that this book in any way criticizes the Church of today feel that they have to condemn it. That is assuredly the face of a controversial book that dares us to view a famous work of art in a fresh and startlingly new manner.
I challenge any reader who comes to this book with an open mind not to be overwhelmed and ultimately convinced of its remarkable new insights. Do not be swayed by reviewers who in passing happen to mention that they wrote their own analysis of the Sistine - and of course anyone else who offers a different interpretation is guilty of a "debacle."
Read it for yourself. You are in for an incomparable treat!
The Sistine Secrets - a "classic" May 6, 2008
19 out of 28 found this review helpful
What makes a book a work of art; a "classic?" A lot of things, but one is the book's ability to never grow "old" and to always be able to be seen in a new light.
Michael Angelo's Sistine Chapel is a classic. And "The Sistine Secrets" sheds new light on the subject. The recent resoration of the Sistine Frescoes combined with the recent studies of Kabbalah, provide a new and exciting perspective on the Biblical messages that make the Sistine Chapel ceiling not only a great work of art, but a source of religious teachings that now have a new glow for 21st century viewers and readers.
Benjamin Blech and Roy Doliner are to be applauded for the contribution their book makes to art and religious history. It is said that when Michael Angelo completed his sketch of Moses, he hit the knee of the statue and shouted, "Why don't you speak to me?" Because of Blech and Doliner, the Sistine Chapel now speaks to us.
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