The Creation of Adam, Michelangelo Buonarroti

The Creation of Adam

In 1990 the physician Frank Lynn Meshberger published an anatomical reading: the swirling pink cloak that surrounds God and the cluster of angels traces a precise sagittal cross-section of the human brain. Brain stem, pituitary, optic chiasm, cerebellum can be matched to features in the drapery. Michelangelo had performed cadaver dissections, under Medici protection. What passes from God to Adam is not body. It is the mind to think with. Now at Sistine Chapel, Vatican City @vaticanmuseums

Artist
Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475 to 1564)
Date
1512
Medium
Fresco
Dimensions
280 × 570 cm
Collection
Sistine Chapel, Vatican City
Image
Wikimedia Commons · Public domain