The Creation of Adam by Michelangelo

Where? Middle of the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican Museums
When? Around 1512
Commissioned by? Pope Julius II
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What do you see? Adam is on the left and God is on the right. God is flying in the air with his beard and hair floating in the wind. He stretches out his right arm to touch the left hand of Adam who is laying on the earth. Their hands are almost touching as God is giving life to Adam. God and Adam are both depicted as muscular figures with the difference that God is dressed in a white mantle and Adam is naked. The muscular figure of Adam shows clear similarities to the famous statue of David by Michelangelo.

God created Adam as a mirror of his own image according to the biblical story in Genesis, and we can see that similarity in this fresco (for example, look at the right leg of Adam and God). Adam seems already alive given that his eyes are open. However, Adam is still has a somewhat passive expression, and his arm is not fully stretched yet.  So, it seems that the gift of life is given through a spark without God physically touching Adam. God is surrounded by twelve figures against the background of, what some suppose, a red robe.

David by Michelangelo

The figures surrounding God: God is surrounded by twelve figures, which are identified as angels. However, the figure under the left arm of God stands out as she seems to be different. It is actually a woman and it is not clear who she is. Some have suggested that this is a female angel, others suggest that this is Eva, and even others suggest that she is the bride of God.

​The left hand of God also touches one of the angels. This angel has been suggested to starkly resemble Baby Jesus in the Doni Tondo (in the Uffizi Museum), and may thus be God’s idea for the creation of Jesus. If this is true, then this painting also symbolizes the future coming of Jesus to reconcile the sins of Adam and his descendants.

Doni Tondo by Michelangelo

Backstory: This painting is based on the biblical story in Genesis 1:26-27: “And God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him; male and female created He them.”

When reading this story in the Bible, many people have this image of Michelangelo in their minds. Michelangelo painted this fresco near the end of his work on the ceiling, which contains, among other things, nine scenes from the book of Genesis. However, the Creation of Adam has become the most memorable part of the series of frescos on the ceiling.

Who is Michelangelo? Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (1475-1564) was born in Caprese in the Republic of Florence. He was a painter, sculptor, poet, and architect and he has had an enormous influence on the development of art. Some consider him the greatest artist ever, but he is certainly considered to be one of the four most important artists of the Renaissance, together with Donatello, Leonardo da Vinci, and Raphael.

During his life, Michelangelo was considered to be the best artist on earth and earned the nickname Il Divino (the divine one). During his time in Rome with Pope Julius II, he painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel all by himself. It took him four years (1508-1512) to complete this ceiling, which is now considered to be one of the best frescos ever created. He also created The Last Judgment on the wall of the Sistine Chapel, which is also a very famous fresco.

The Last Judgment by Michelangelo

Fun fact: In 1990, Frank Meshberger, a gynecologist, wrote a paper in the Journal of the American Medical Association claiming that the red background behind God and his entourage represents an anatomically correct image of the brain. This interpretation implies that this painting shows not only the gift of life by God but also the gift of intellect. He describes that Adam is already alive in this fresco and the real effort of God to touch Adam would be to give him a brain with intellect.

While many people are not completely convinced by this interpretation, it is not entirely unlikely. Michelangelo often dissected corpses to get a better understanding of human anatomy and he would thus have known how a human brain would look like. In addition, some of the sonnets that Michelangelo wrote also discuss the important role of the intellect of human beings. Another interpretation of the red background that gained some traction is that it is a depiction of a uterus and that this fresco symbolizes fertility.

Interested in a copy for yourself? Poster of canvas (Amazon links)

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Written by Eelco Kappe

References:

• Barolsky, Paul (2013), “The Genius of Michelangelo's ‘Creation of Adam’ and the Blindness of Art History,” Notes in the History of Art, 33(1), 21-24.
• Meshberger, Frank L. (1990), “An Interpretation of Michelangelo’s Creation of Adam Based on Neuroanatomy,” Journal of the American Medical Association, 264(14), 1837-1841.
• Rzepińska, Maria, (1994), “The Divine Wisdom of Michelangelo in ‘The Creation of Adam’,” Artibus et Historiae, 15(29), 181-187.