The devil’s in the details

Make a trip across the river for Michelangelo exhibit

By DON WILBURN

donaldfwilburn@gmail.com

With the kids out of school and families going on vacation, those wishing to take a trip to Italy but lacking the necessary funds can still get a taste of Italian culture, so to speak, just across the river by visiting Michelangelo: The Exhibit in downtown Memphis until June 10.

“Although these are not the originals, of course, in many ways and I do not think it would be going too far to say, for some, the Exhibit has some advantages over the real thing.” said Eric Leong, senior producer of the exhibit in a previous interview “For example, the ceiling in Rome has to be viewed from 60ft below. It is quite far. Here you can get up close and personal. Also, in Vatican City you will get yelled at for taking photos. Here, we encourage it! We have recreated Michelangelo’s works with the utmost care using extremely high resolution photos.”

Leong touched on several advantages but he hit the nail on the head when he said “up close and personal”. Michelangelo’s paintings are blown up in many cases to much much larger than their real life counterparts allowing visitors to see incredible details simply not visible to the naked eye if one were viewing them in person in Rome. To say the images are hypnotic at this level of detail would be putting it mildly.

“I just can’t stop looking at it” said one local pastor from Memphis, “It’s amazing. You can see the pupils of their eyes. I’ve been here looking at just this one for at least twenty minutes. I don’t even know if I will get to all of them today. I might have to come back.”

Luckily there is no time limit as with the tours at the Sistine Chapel in Rome and patrons may stay as long as they like. Also, as Leong mentioned, photos are encouraged. The requisite gift/souvenir shop also sells the typical cup, mugs, t-shirts, etc that one would expect and visitors also get a “personalized” tour guide by downloading the app associated with he exhibit that explains in painstaking and quite often, humorous, detail all of the paintings on display. It is recommended that visitors bring earphones.

“I’ve been to the Sistine Chapel” said one young college student accompanied by two friends, “It’s not nearly the same experience. There you have the noises, the smells, things like that. But this is great for people that can’t go. It’s not better or worse, just different. More calm. Here you can enjoy everything in peace and at your own pace. I definitely like how the things I couldn’t see before, I can now. That’s definitely better. Even in books I never noticed some of the things.”

The show began on May 5 and will end on June 10, with tickets sold for Wednesdays through Sundays. Tickets start at $22.50 for adults; $19 for children ages 4-12; and $21.50 for senior citizens, students and military. Group ticket discounts are also available.

A local pastor described the pantings as “hypnotic” as he looks on at David’s slaying Goliath.

Photos by Don Wilburn

Many of the paintings details are enlarged 5 times their original size.

Michelangelo’s “The Creation of Man” in its 9’x18’ original size.