Michelangelo: Creation of Adam

Michelangelo: Creation of Adam(1508-12)

      The Creation of Adam was made during a part of the renaissance called the high Renaissance, artists in the era are Leonardo, Raphael, and Michelangelo. During the high Renaissance era, there was a marriage between Catholicism and Greek Mythology in the art. Michelangelo spent much of his life studying the human body and he shows great knowledge in this subject through his representation of the nude human body. Michelangelo was greatly inspired by religion in this work of art, and many other pieces he did(Sistine Chapel,etc.). The subjects in this painting are figure and fantasy. Adam, God, and the angels, all three of them are used to represent the relationship between God and humanity. This painting has intense emotion and complexity when it comes to the human body, its movement, and religion.

      We can see the complexity of movement represented in the painting, where God's face is profiled but his torso is out straight. It looks as if God's body is traveling with great velocity. Although he has his hand reaching out to Adam his other arm is wrapped around the angels, almost as if to say the angels are hiding behind God. The faces of some of those angels look as if they fear or have a sort of disdain for humanity. Contrapposto is used heavily in both figures to enhance the fluidity in the body movement. Adam's face is profiled and his body is also out straight, similar to God's and his shoulders are also twisted in different directions. Adam's body has a herculean physique to emphasis the human obsession with perfection. The distance between God and Adam speak to the fact that although humans were a creation of God, they are so close yet so far from him.