Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel ceiling is history's greatest artwork — but what does it actually mean?
Well, these are no ordinary Bible scenes.
And there's one key detail that everyone ignored for centuries… (thread) 🧵
Man's greatest painting was made not by a painter, but a sculptor. Michelangelo was primarily a sculptor in 1508, when the Pope twisted his arm into adorning the chapel ceiling.
He had never completed a fresco before...
That is evident in the 343 figures that look like they were "sculpted" onto the ceiling — muscular, powerful forms that borrowed from classical sculpture.
Da Vinci's Last Supper is a keystone of Christian art.
It inspired centuries of awe and speculation — over its subtle symbols and concealed messages.
But there's something hidden that nearly everyone overlooks... (thread) 🧵
Many aren't aware it's a mural, painted on the wall of a church refectory in Milan.
It's survival today is a miracle — it came inches from destruction in WW2, and has faded so much that monks once felt happy to knock through Christ's feet for a new doorway.
But what makes it such a masterpiece?
Unlike most paintings of the Last Supper, Leonardo decided against a calm dispensing of bread and wine. Instead, the Apostles reel in shock at Christ's announcement:
Reminder that Argentina was once as rich as the US and Buenos Aires was "the Paris of South America".
So what happened?
Here's how it looked — and what it teaches us... (thread) 🧵
At the turn of the 20th century, Argentina was as rich as the U.S. per capita, GDP grew 6% annually, and its beach resorts looked like this.
4 million Europeans flocked there during its Belle Époque — dreaming of being "as rich as an Argentine".
It owed its wealth to its exports (beef and wheat mainly). These peaked at ~4% of all global trade in the 1920s, and Argentina was still as rich as much of Europe as late as 1950.