The Creation of Adam, Michelangelo, 1511

Michelangelo Buonarroti (1477-1564) was an extremely talented painter and is widely considered to be an archetypal Renaissance man. One of his best known works is The Creation of Adam, a section of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican. The Sistine Chapel contains nine distinct images, which can be separated into three groups of three: the Story of Creation, the Story of Adam and Eve and the Story of Noah, all of which come from the book of Genesis. In The Creation of Adam, Adam is the ideal young man, based on classical Roman and Greek prototypes. Adam is physically alive, but what Michelangelo shows is the moment where God gives Adam his spirit, soul and intellect. Adam is completely naked, connoting vulnerability to his creator, while God is depicted as a bearded, elderly man in billowing robes. God‘s right arm reaches out to Adam to give the gift of life, while Adam‘s left arm is raised and mirrors His pose, which serves as a reminder that man is created in the image of God. God‘s finger does not touch Adam, giving the impression of life coursing through God like electricity, reaching out to Adam while Adam is receiving. The backdrop behind God is reminiscent of the human brain, while God’s left arm reaches around a female generally considered to be Eve. As one of the best known paintings of all time, The Creation of Adam has been parodied numerous times, usually when one or both of the central characters are substituted. The almost meeting of fingers at the centre of the fresco is perhaps the most famous detail of any painting in the Western world.