Who's Who in Michelangelo's Creation of Adam: A Chronology of the Picture's Reluctant
Self-Revelation
This article talks about Michelangelo’s Creation Of Adam. It is a painting that was
painted in the 16th Century during the High Renaissance that focused on figure painting and was
done quickly in watercolor on wet plaster on a ceiling.This painting were commissioned by Pope
Julius II for the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican, Rome. The scene that was painted
was the fourth scene from the Book Of Genesis; story of God breathing life into Adam, the first
human being.
In the Creation Of Adam, it is depicted that “God created man in his own image, in the
image of God he created him”. God is shown on the right side, surrounded by angels. Out of
those angels, there are only two faces that are detailed. It has been speculated whether or not it’s
Eve, Virgin Mary & Christ child. God is shown as an older masculine figure that is clothed in a
pinkish pale cloth. Adam and God’s arms are stretched towards each other, almost touching but
not exactly. God’s arm is stretched out to spark life into Adam. Both of the hands are separated
to show the differences between human and God. On the left, Adam is nude, with a masculine
figure. Adam is seen mirroring God when it comes to the same position of the body. The red
cloth behind God, kind of resembles the frame of a uterus or brain. It wouldn’t be surprising if it
was a uterus or brain, due to the fact Michelangelo did have a lot of knowledge about human
anatomy.
Michelangelo’s work was created at a time when scholars, statesmen and artists were
embracing the humanist ideals. These humanist ideals emphasized humans potential to attain
excellence. Greek, Roman, arts and sciences was mainly based on the idea of humanism. By
pertaining the lessons learned from the ancients within the context of Christianity, it was
believed that the past could not be mirror, or transcend. During that time this meant creating the
idea of Christian subjects on the idealized nudes of the classical antiquity.
In Leo Steinberg’s “Who’s Who in Michelangelo’s Creation Of Adam: A Chronology of
the Picture’s Reluctant Self-Revelation” he talks about the history of the Creation Of Adam.
Also, he proposes an argument that the two figures that have details unlike the other angels may
have been Eve and the Christ child. He goes on how they either been contested or ignored. For
example, Ernst Steinmann (1905) decreed: The beautiful creature of a feminine rather than
masculine type, who presses forward so pertly from under Jehovah's left arm and looks so
intently at Adam, is neither Eve nor the "world-fashioning Sophia of the Book of Wisdom," nor
the "personified human soul," but an angel of masculine build like all the rest”. Another person
Luitpold Dussler called the young thing a sprite, an elf or fairy. Not even Frederick Hartt found
any evidence suggesting that a female figure is designated. He still believed that nothing...
