The Monquistan "Touch of God"

Pirate101 is full of real-life references and based on a variety of modern and not-so-modern themes. For those of you not aware of several of these, I thought I'd share one that I found quite interesting. A little monkey in Monquista named Leonardo Michelangelo has more historical reference than you might think upon first glance. The concept above might seem funny, but not unless you understand where the idea came from. You see, the real Michelangelo did a similar painting on the Sistine Chapel ceiling.

The original painting was among a number of others shown in the Sistine Chapel. This specific work was painted sometime between 1508 and 1512. It depicts God's creation of Adam.

The painting is quite famous. I've included a small snippet above of the actual painting. For the most part, the full work in not as obscene as you might expect based on my cropping, but it doesn't hurt to keep things child-friendly here. If you're interested in learning more about the history of the real painting, ask your parent's permission to go online and search "The Creation of Adam."

The concept was not done by a monkey with a goatee, however. It was painted by the Lead Concept Artist at KingsIsle Entertainment, Dave Greco. He runs a great blog with a number of his unique concepts, including some that I'm not sure you will have seen before.

Greco says, "This piece is to be displayed on one of the King's walls in Monquista I believe," and goes on to describe the painting as "pretty amusing to do."

My time in Monquista was so short that I must have missed it. However, my next few times through, I had been noticing a variety of concept art included in the game itself - as paintings in banks, throne rooms, libraries, taverns, and more! I'll definitely be paying close attention this time!

The big, grey monkey is clearly the "God" of this painting, reaching from his stash of bananas to bestow one upon the monkey of the Earth, representing Adam.

Believe it or not, the area in which the hands meet are practically as famous as the painting itself. It is important to notice that, in both paintings, the hands do not meet. In the original, the index fingers are closest to touching, while in the painting, the monkey is handed a banana. Besides their being monkeys, that's the major difference, and it makes the painting.

This symbolic meeting of the hands is references a variety of places in today's culture. For example, the movie 2012 features a scene is which the College of Cardinals is praying in the chapel, and the roof begins to crack, separating the hands before the building collapses.

Before I finish things up, I must again mention the artist of this concept, Dave Greco. Be sure to check out his blog for more of his recent work on Pirate101 and Wizard101 - there are some truly unique concepts there. You can find his blog at http://myelectronicdays.blogspot.com/ and the post containing this concept at THIS LOCATION.

Well, you know my view on the concept - the only question is, what do you think? And beyond the concept itself, would you enjoy more concept analyses? Be sure to let me know! Until next time, thanks for reading, and see you in the Spiral.