2003-08-31 08:24:57 -- Artist: MIchelangelo Buonarroti
Medium: Painting on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel


"The Creation of Adam" is one of the scenes painted on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel by Michelangelo around 1511. What is perhaps one of the most complex composition in Western art, it is scarcely possible to put into words the impressions roused by this marvelous painting. It is as though current passed from the painted scene to the beholder.

Adam lies back on a barren terrain, a small piece of the newly created earth. His languid pose belies his apparent physical strength. Based on classical Greek and Roman prototypes, Adam is the ideal human male with his rippling muscles and elegant contours. However, at this particular moment, Adam is not complete. He extends his left hand out to meet the finger of God. God hovers in the air, surrounded by angels and a billowing cloak-like form. Adam is clearly made in God's image, as seen in God's muscular form. God stretches out with his right hand toward Adam, looking intently and directly at Adam, who returns the gaze with longing. As God's outstretched finger almost meets Adam's more passive finger, we are poised on the brink of creation. Adam is physically alive, but here God is about to endow Adam with what makes human beings truly alive: the spirit, the soul, and the intellect. All of man's potential, physical and spiritual, is contained in this one timeless moment.

More paintings and their stories
[link]

This site cannot be viewed through the link formatted so the viewer has to copy the url here and paste it to browser page.

[link] scstore zsly6763ff8a808a 1062347122