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Michelangelo’s Strange Hidden Messages in “The Creation of Adam”
Discovered 500 years later
A white-bearded guy outstretches his arm toward a naked young guy. Adam (on the left) nearly touches God’s forefinger (on the right) as the Almighty imparts a spark of life into him. We can say that the first Biblical human looks pretty much like his Maker.
“God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him.” — the First Book of Moses (Gen. 1:27)
The Creation of Adam is among the most famous paintings in art history. Painted by Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475–1564), the fresco depicts one of nine episodes from the Book of Genesis. Every year around 5,000,000 tourists come to the Vatican to see it on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.
In an oval-shaped red cloth, angels carry God toward young Adam lying on a freshly created earth. There are twelve figures around the Creator. The English art critic Walter Pater (1839–1894) believed the character under God’s left arm is Eve: She has a feminine face and is already giving Adam an intent look. The other 11 figures are their unborn children.
Then again other critics believe the woman is the Virgin Mary — an “angel of the masculine build.”
