Michelangelo's Puzzle
By (Author) Rebecca Jelbert
Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Bloomsbury Publishing USA
13th November 2025
United States
Professional and Scholarly
Non Fiction
History of art
Religious and ceremonial arts
Hardback
320
Width 152mm, Height 229mm
Michelangelos Puzzle: Forgery, Star Maps, and the Sistine Chapel will be popular with readers who are interested art crime, art history, astronomy, and puzzles. Michelangelos Puzzle expands on Rebeccas article published in Journal of Art Crime (2019), in which she argued that the Vaticans Laocon Group was created by Michelangelo as a forged antiquity. Drawing on the traditional link between Laocon 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.
Rebecca Jelbert is a published author, professional painter, and doctoral researcher. She has had five articles published in academic, peer-reviewed journals and is currently studying for a PhD in Art History. Her paintings have been exhibited in venues such as the Mall Galleries, Christies and Bonhams, and her illustrations have appeared in print and on BBC TV. Rebeccas art history articles have been published in prestigious peer-reviewed journals, including The Burlington Magazine and Dante Studies (Johns Hopkins University Press).