The Creation of Adam

Buonarroti, Michelangelo (March 1475 – February 1564)

1511-1512. Fresco. 280 cm × 570 cm.

The Creation of Adam is one of the most recognized frescos found inside the the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel. Painted by Michelangelo in 1511-1512 as a commission from Pope Sixtus IV, The Creation of Adam depicts a languid, yet almost tense Adam reaching lazily out to God. God is approaching Adam with his right arm outstretched, supported and surrounded by angels as well as a mysterious female figure. The fresco itself is part of a larger story of Genesis that Michelangelo painted in the Sistine Chapel, but specifically elucidates Michelangelo's use of light and color to reveal his knowledge of human anatomy.

The main focus of the artwork is the minute distance between Adam's and God’s hands, which are on the verge of touching, but are frozen on the precipice. The tension between an almost straining God and a seemingly nonchalant Adam is palpable, with multiple lines in the painting guiding the eye to the center. Adam, at first glance seems lethargic, lying down and lazily holding his arm up to meet God’s. This misconstrusion quickly deteriorates after further inspection. Michelangelo painted Adam’s body tensed, as shown by his bulging left leg and taut arm. It seems that Adam is ready to spring up at any moment, a man ready to accept the gift being offered to him. God, surrounded by flowing hair and an accompaniment of angels, is ready to impart his gift, whatever it may be. God is also protectively embracing a female figure, with his finger on a child, who could potentially be understood as Jesus (Steinberg 559). The female figure has been interpreted to be either Eve, Mary, or Sophia, the human embodiment of the soul (Steinberg 559-560). Michelangelo utilized a bright palate of colors to depict the scene, with an adept use of shadow to create a sense of depth, especially around God. Michelangelo established a vanishing point to bring depth to the statically charged, but simple background. The muted background helps to showcase the two figures, the visual focus of the fresco.

One of the most interesting contributions of The Creation of Adam is that God is depicted for the first time in a horizontal position. Why Michelangelo chose this representation is unknown, but perhaps plays into what Frank Lynn Meshberger discovered in 1990. Meshberger overlaid a human brain onto the red ribbon-like area where God is placed and found something astonishing. Meshberger found that the shape of God and His entourage matches almost perfectly to the lobes of the brain, the brainstem and pituitary gland, as well as other parts of the brain, such as the optic chiasm (Meshberger 1). The outstretched foot next to the green ribbon has two parts, similar to the visible difference in the anterior and posterior lobes in the pituitary gland. The dappling light around God and on the angels is no longer simply depth but the grooves and contours of the brain (Figure A). Meshberger suggests that Michelangelo painted Adam reaching out to touch the human brain, knowledge, which was likely the artist's vision of God’s gift to mankind.

Michelangelo’s near perfect depiction of the human brain evidences the vast spread of information originating from liberal arts schools in the 15th and 16th centuries. It may feel surprising that an artist, granted one who focused on the human body, had such a deep understanding of the human brain’s anatomy. Michaelangelo’s knowledge, however, supports the idea that the knowledge gained from autopsy at academic institutions like Padua in Italy was not withheld from the population--rather that it was shared (Shotwell 8).

Sponsored by the Medici family, Michelangelo attended a humanist academy in Florence, an early incarnation of contemporary liberal arts colleges (Bull 17). A humanist academy provided opportunities to view cadaver dissections, and Michelangelo dissected cadavers himself, starting when he was only eighteen (Straus 1). Besides this experience, the close likeness of God’s retinue to the brain reveals the vast spread of knowledge coming from places like Padua in Italy, which taught cadaver dissections and trained future doctors. The curriculum involved detailed dissection, where students would watch a professor conduct an autopsy (Bull 10-12). Besides the anatomical knowledge from dissection, students would learn about all disciplines, because doctors oftentimes became professors and were thus required to have at least basic knowledge of multiple areas (Bull 10-20). Padua, as well as other places that trained medical professionals at the time, were the first liberal arts schools. That Michelangelo lived most of his life within a two day walking trip’s distance from Padua grants merit to the notion that he would have been exposed to knowledge disseminating from this academic institution, as well as knowledge of human anatomy taught by their anatomy theatre (Bull 9-20).

Michelangelo utilized his knowledge of human anatomy, sculpture, and color to make The Creation of Adam an incredibly complex painting, containing underlying themes about life, specifically man's relationship to God and knowledge. The dissemination of anatomical information from liberal arts schools in the 16th and 17th centuries allowed Michelangelo to allude to the brain in The Creation of Adam. Furthermore, this suggests part of The Creation of Adam’s historical significance is to evidence the spread of knowledge and ideas from liberal arts schools such as Padua in the 16th century and onwards.

Acknowledgments:

I would like to thank Professor Perez and Sarah Arena for providing helpful review and suggestions to mold my argument into its current form.

List of Works Cited:

Bull, George. Michelangelo: A Biography. New York: St. Martin's, 1996. Print.

Durgun, B. "Groundbreaking Anatomical Reflections in Michelangelo's and Leonardo Da Vinci's Masterpieces." Ebsco. EBSCO, 14 Sept. 2014. Web. 6 Apr. 2016.

Lakke, JP. "Artful Imaging of the Brain. From Logo to Metaphor, about Michelangelo and Kiefer." National Center for Biotechnology Information. U.S. National Library of Medicine, Feb. 1999. Web. 06 Apr. 2016.

Meshberger, Frank Lynn. "An Interpretation of Michelangelo's Creation of Adam Based on Neuroanatomy." JAMA Network. JAMA, 10 Oct. 1990. Web. 05 Apr. 2016.

Shotwell, R. Allen. "The Revival of Vivisection in the Sixteenth Century."Journal of the History of Biology J Hist Biol 46.2 (2012): 171-97. Web. 6 Apr. 2016.

Steinberg, Leo. “Who's Who in Michelangelo's Creation of Adam: A Chronology of the Picture's Reluctant Self-revelation”. The Art Bulletin 74.4 (1992): 552–566. Web.

Strauss, Roland M., and Helena Marzo-Ortega. "Michelangelo and Medicine."Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine. The Royal Society of Medicine, Oct. 2002. Web. 12 Apr. 2016.

Wilten, Danny. Creation of Adam Brain (Detail). Digital image. Facebook. N.p., 11 Oct. 2014. Web. 12 Apr. 2016.