"NOTABLE PICTURES IN ROME."
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."]
SIR,—In the few lines which your reviewer gives to my
"Notable Pictures in Rome" (Spectator, June 29th) he warns the unwary against the writer's fanciful ideas. "For instance," he goes on, "we are told that Michelangelo in the fresco of Adam in the Sistine Chapel was really depicting a Gnostic idea of the Deity, and not the creation of man" (italics mine). Is this a faithful summary of the following sentence ?—
" Throughout the series one feels that the representation would be wonderfully clearer if we might believe that Michel Angelo was familiar with the views of the Gnostics, those early heretics of the second century, who looked upon the Creator of the world as not the Supreme Being but an impersonation of ignorant and supernatural activity."
The statement that what Michel Angelo was depicting was not the "creation of man" is one not approached even by a
suggestion.—Relying on your sense of justice to publish this,
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