Liber
Michelangelo’s Puzzle. Forgery, Star Maps, and the Sistine Chapel
Rebecca Jelbert explores Michelangelo’s major works through the lens of hidden structures, symbolic systems, and esoteric traditions. It considers how themes associated with Mithras and other mystery cults may illuminate new interpretative possibilities within Renaissance art.
The New Mithraeum
For fans of art crime, art history, astronomy, and puzzles, Michelangelo’s Puzzle expands on Rebecca’s article published in Journal of Art Crime (2019), in which she argued that the Vatican’s Laocoön Group was created by Michelangelo as a forged antiquity. Drawing on the traditional link between Laocoön and the constellation of Ophiuchus, Michelangelo was able to depict the famous sculpture within the context of a hidden star map on the Sistine Chapel ceiling. The foreword has been written by Noah Charney, founder of the Association for Research into Crimes against Art (ARCA). This book is unique as it has been written by a professional artist who combines creative insight with rigorous research.
