The Creation of Adam

The Creation of Adam

Today I would like to take about the Creation of Adam, one of the world’s great art treasures, and also part of one of the most complex compositions in Western Art. The Italian Renaissance artist Michelangelo Buonarroti painted the frescoes on the ceiling of the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel from the years 1508 through 1512. He worked alone and was commissioned by Pope Julius II. The Creation of Adam was completed around 1510. Out of the nine narrative scenes featuring events from the book of Genesis, this is the most striking, when man is created in the image and likeness of God (Gen 1:26).

The most famous detail of Michelangelo’s painting is the separation of the two fingertips. Three fourths of an inch separates the fingertips of the father and son. This is the beginning of a new relationship, as the fingers of the father and son reach towards each other both figures radiate with love. What an awe inspiring masterpiece!

Lator, in 1990, Frank Lynn Meshberger, MD, described that an anatomically accurate image of the human brain was portrayed behind God. It has also been noted that the red cloth around God has the shape of a human uterus and the scarf hanging out could be a newly cut umbilical cord. This has been discussed through the ages and is not unlikely given Michelangelo’s well-documented expertise in human anatomy.

If you are wondering what a fresco is the dictionary defines it as – “Also called buon fresco, true fresco. The art or technique of painting on a moist, plaster surface with colors ground up in water or a limewater mixture.”

I hope you have enjoyed learning about this famous art work as much as I have!

Plafond de la Chapelle Sixtine