God Creating Adam By Michelangelo: Art Analysis

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Recommended: Art during the Renaissance

The Sistine Chapel is renown as one of the most fascinating pieces of art. Like most art of the Renaissance, it also has many different interpretations. Because of its large size, it took four years to complete (Fields). On the central panel of the ceiling, one can see the painting of ‘God Creating Adam’. This image is powerful and has strong biblical undertones, as the entire painting was commissioned by the Pope (Doston, 2). It is commonly interpreted by ideological and iconographic methodologies that the Sistine Chapel and its many biblical paintings serve as an allegory, intentionally created by Michelangelo to conceal information derived by his personal fascination with the human anatomy.
The Sistine Chapel, being commissioned by the …show more content…

This art was part of a larger movement of Renaissance artists that were inspired by science, and often included in artistic renderings like paintings and sculptures. In a literal sense, the creation of man was a biblical story used to explain man’s existence; on a figurative level, it represented the Resurrection and the gift of the Holy Spirit. As man alone was made in the image of God, it is further interpreted that the Michelangelo’s image of Man was made from his own anatomical discoveries. Herbert von Einem argues that Michelangelo “restricted himself to essentials and rejected almost entirely the non-human aspects of his subject. His sole concern was with the act of creation” (Doston, 233-235). It is the opinion of this essay that Michelangelo’s inspiration with creation and the human body served as a platform for him to create a true work of art. Combining these interpretations, facts, and mathematical discoveries hidden in the brushstrokes of his artwork one arrives at the conclusion that the Sistine Chapel is an example of the great human quest for understanding human origin and introspective inquiry. Because of Michelangelo’s fascinations, he was able to incorporate them into the painting to give it another level of depth and contextual meaning which will continue to be studied as one of greatest works of art in

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