66 349

Art critic Marina Khaikina and psychoanalyst Andrei Rossokhin look at one painting and tell us about what they know and what they feel. For what? So that, (dis)agreeing with them, we more clearly realize our own attitude towards the picture, the plot, the artist and ourselves.

"The Creation of Adam"(Sistine Chapel, Vatican City, Rome, 1508–1512) - the fourth of nine central compositions of the cycle of frescoes on the theme of the creation of the world, commissioned by Michelangelo Buonarroti to decorate the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel by Pope Julius II.

“To live is to create”

Marina Khaikina, art critic

“Michelangelo wrote God in the ancient spirit: he is real in his physical and divine incarnation. Dressed in a simple pink tunic, God flies over the created world, surrounded by wingless angels. Female figure to his right is Eve, she is still waiting for the hour of her creation, but has already been conceived by God. During the flight, God turns, rushes towards Adam and stretches out his hand to him.

This movement towards one's creation embodies the energy of life that the Creator intends to transmit to man. The figure of the Creator is mirrored in the pose of the reclining Adam, created in his image and likeness. But at the same time, Adam’s pose also follows the outline of the rock: he is still only part of the landscape around him. Literally missing a spark vitality to breathe soul into it.

Hands almost meet. Michelangelo places this gesture at the very center of the fresco and pauses to enhance the impact of the images. We practically see how energy is transferred through the brush of God to the hand of man. Choosing this very moment from the history of the creation of man - the birth of the soul, Michelangelo equates it with creative insight. In his opinion, the ability to create and create is the most valuable gift that is given to a person from above.

Between two hands stretched out to each other, a miracle is performed that is inaccessible to our vision. This gesture was already seen in Leonardo da Vinci; but if the angel in his painting “Madonna in the Grotto” only pointed to a miracle, then here the gesture of God embodies it. Subsequently, this gesture will be repeated by many other artists - agreeing or arguing with Michelangelo’s faith in man and in the power of creativity.”

“We are born at the moment of parting”

Andrey Rossokhin, psychoanalyst

“The first thing I feel here is a moment of unique meeting, which is full of energy and strength. God rushes towards Adam to breathe life into him. Now their fingers will close - and the flaccid body will be born, gain strength, life, and fire will be lit in Adam’s eyes. But at the same time, I have a subtle feeling that God and his retinue are moving in the other direction, flying away from Adam. This is indicated by the figures of a woman and a baby; they seem to push away from him, and thereby set the reverse movement.

Why? I suppose that Michelangelo unconsciously painted here not a meeting, but the moment of parting that followed it. God personifies both the paternal and maternal principles at the same time, their union leads to the birth of a child - the baby Adam. The maternal principle of God is conveyed through the red veil, which I associate with the maternal womb, with the maternal universe, the womb, in which many future lives, potential human “I”s, are born. The hands of Adam and God stretched out towards each other are like an umbilical cord that was severed a moment ago, and it is this moment of separation that I observe in the picture.

And in this case, Adam’s melancholic pose conveys not the absence of life, but the sadness of parting. He does not yet know that only thanks to such a separation can he be born as a person, as a separate “I”. The fingers of God and Adam in the painting are like a painter's brush, and I think this is very important. Michelangelo unconsciously lives the story of separation from two sides - both as Adam and as the Creator.

I see here not only the sadness of a child abandoned by a parent, and the sadness of an artist forced to say goodbye to his brainchild, his painting. But also the artist’s determination to take this step. After all, only when he finds the strength to part with his creation will the painting be completed and be able to live its own life.”

Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475–1564), Italian sculptor, artist, architect, outstanding master of the Renaissance. All over the world, the name Michelangelo is associated with the frescoes of the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, the statues of David and Moses, the Cathedral of St. Peter's in Rome. In the art of Michelangelo, both the deeply human ideals of the High Renaissance and the tragic sense of crisis of the humanistic worldview, characteristic of the late Renaissance, were embodied with great force.

Read also

This fresco was created in 1511 (or thereabouts). It became the fourth of nine central compositions on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, dedicated to nine scenes from the book of Genesis of the Old Testament.

Let's remember the line related to this fresco:

And God created man in His own image

(Gen. 1:27) However, this is not entirely accurate. In a good way, here man has already been created, and therefore new nuances appear in the interpretation of the fresco.

It is very likely that there is a third in the plot of this work of art. main character, and it has direct relevance to neuroscience and neuroscience. Dr. Frank Lynn Meshberger, a gynecologist at St. John's in Anderson, Indiana, in an article published in 1990 in the Journal of the American Medical Association, An Interpretation of Michelangelo's Creation of Adam Based on Neuroanatomy, believes that this hero is the human brain.

Indeed, all of Michelangelo’s works in the field of fine art - both painting and sculpture - speak of the master’s excellent knowledge of human anatomy. Just remember the amazing work human body in "David". Even in his Lives of Artists, Michelangelo's contemporary and colleague Giorgio Vasari recalls that the artist often observed autopsies. This is what made it possible for Meshberger to suggest the presence of some hidden message in this fresco.

Here's what he writes himself:

The Creation of Adam fresco shows Adam and God moving towards each other, their hands outstretched, their fingers almost touching. One can imagine the “spark of life” jumping from God to Adam through the “synapse” between the index fingers. However, Adam is already alive, his eyes are open, and he is fully formed; but nevertheless, the picture tells us that Adam “receives” something from God. I believe there is a third "protagonist" in the fresco that has not previously been recognized. I will try to show using anatomical drawings by Frank Netter from The CIBA Collection of Medical Illustrations, Volume I - The Nervous System.

Let's follow Meshberger's thought.

Here are four drawings, numbered 1 to 4:

As you can see, the first and second drawings are very similar, as are the third and fourth. Numbers 1 and 3 are drawings from Frank Netter's atlas of neuroanatomy

Figure 6 (numbered according to the cited article) shows the left lateral surface of the brain and the sulci and gyri that are present in the hemispheres. The Sylvian fissure, or lateral fissure, is a fissure that separates the hemispheres of the brain. Figure 1 - outline this illustration.

Figure 8 is a cross-section of the brain and spinal cord shown in Figure 7. Figure 3 is obtained from Figure 8 by removing the cerebellum and midbrain structures, as well as “bending” the spinal cord back from the “standard” anatomical position.

And now - surprise! Figures 2 and 4 are drawn... from the image of God and angels in Michelangelo's fresco. Figure 2 is obtained by drawing the outer “shell” and furrows, and Figure 4 is the outer “shell” and large lines on the figures of God and angels.

Don't believe me? See:

“The Creation of the World” is part of a grandiose fresco painted by Michelangelo Buonarroti on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. The Sistine Chapel (the home church of the Roman popes in the Vatican) was built in 1475-81, during the time of Pope Sixtus IV , and its walls are still decorated with frescoes by remarkable masters of that time. The vault originally depicted a sky strewn with stars, and in 1508 Pope Julius II commissioned thirty-three-year-old Michelangelo to paint it. The artist accomplished the truly impossible: in four years he painted on a ceiling of 600 square meters. More than 300 figures from the most difficult angles! Moreover, the technique of the so-called “pure fresco”, painting on wet plaster, is very complex, since it requires speed and accuracy from the master. Let us add that Michelangelo worked in an extremely uncomfortable position - lying on a specially designed platform, constantly wiping off the paint that dripped onto his face. He painted the vault almost single-handedly: the apprentices were entrusted with only minor details of the frames. For each figure, the artist made many sketches and a sketch in life size(cardboard), but still it was impossible to assess the unity of the composition while the work was covered with scaffolding. The more amazing is the perfection of the fresco!

Michelangelo - not only a sculptor, painter, architect, but also a wonderful poet - was a sensitive reader of the Bible, and the compositional form he found surprisingly accurately reflects the very mosaic structure of the Old Testament, which arose over the centuries, consisting of many books, which, although very different from each other, stylistically, they nevertheless form one monumental whole. All parts of the fresco, be it a plot scene or a separate figure, are complete and self-sufficient, but they naturally flow into the overall composition, are subject to a single rhythm, and the repeating elements of the frame - figures of naked young men, medallions and architectural details - liken the painting to a complex ornament, as if woven from human tel.

Ceiling of the Sistine Chapel

Man is not just basic, but the only topic and sculptural and painting works by Michelangelo. Unlike other Renaissance masters, for whom a keen interest in man did not exclude attention to what surrounds him - nature, architecture, the world of things, Michelangelo knew only one means of expression: the plasticity of the human body. In the paintings of the Sistine Chapel, landscape, interiors, clothing, objects are present minimally, only where they cannot be avoided; they are generalized, not detailed and do not distract from the narrative of human actions, characters, passions. This concentration of the artist on the main thing could not be more in keeping with the style of biblical tales, in which dramatic plots are presented concisely, in a few spare, epically succinct phrases, and this concentration of feelings is much more impressive than any other flowery story. The language of plasticity - language, form, color - sounds in Michelangelo as powerful, laconic and sublime as the verses of the Bible; the pathos of the Book of Books is embodied so naturally, convincingly and freely that any other interpretation of familiar plots seems impossible.

The first day. Separation of light from darkness

“...and God separated the light from the darkness. And God called the light day and the darkness night."

The Book of Genesis corresponds to nine compositions occupying the central field of the vault (from the entrance to the chapel to the altar). To get acquainted with them in the sequence in which the stories are presented in the Bible, you need to go to the altar and begin the inspection, moving from the entrance. Five scenes are dedicated to the creation of the world: “The Separation of Light from Darkness”, “The Creation of Lights and Plants”, “The Separation of the Firmament from the Water”, “The Creation of Adam”, “The Creation of Eve”. (Fromacts of Michelangelo did not choose all the episodes of the six days of Creation and changed the sequence of the selected ones)

Day four. Creation of the luminaries

"let there be lights in the firmament of heaven..."

It seems that it was in these compositions that Michelangelo invested the most personal things - who, if not him, the obsessed sculptor, was close to the pathos of creation! Combat with inert matter, create new beautiful bodies from a shapeless, unspiritualized mass, sculpt them from clay, carve them from stone - this inspired work fascinated the master most of all: it was not for nothing that he compared sculpture with the sun, and painting with the moon. The author of the famous fresco always considered himself first and foremost a sculptor, often repeating: “Painting is not my craft.” Michelangelo's God appears before us as the Sculptor of the Universe who has conquered chaos.

Day three. Separation of solid from water

“... the waters under the heaven will be gathered into one place, and dry land will appear... And God called the dry land earth.”

The face of Hosts is sometimes almost distorted by the torment of creativity (“The Creation of the Lights”), sometimes beautiful in its concentration (“The Creation of Adam”). His powerful, muscular body and the hands of his strong, sensitive hands seem to radiate energy. God does not need to touch his creations - they obey his confident, free gestures. In “The Separation of Light from Darkness” Hosts spreads shapeless clouds of fog to the sides, and we seem to hear the noise of the great world-creation. With strong-willed waves of his hands, he sends luminaries to the sky, gives life to plants, pacifies the water element, and with a majestic movement brings the feminine, submissive Eve out of Adam’s rib.

Day six. Creation of Adam

“And God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him.”

In “The Creation of Adam” - admittedly the most beautiful composition of the entire painting - from the imperious hand of Hosts to the still limp, trembling hand of the first man, a stream of life-giving force almost visibly emanates; and it is unlikely that in world art one can find a more accurate formula of “creativity and miracle-working”, a more capacious metaphor of the unity of the material and spiritual, earthly and heavenly, than these two hands striving for each other, already almost touching.

Day six. Creation of Eve

“...male and female he created them”

Shortly before his death, Michelangelo destroyed all his rough sketches and sketches -

“Everyone hopes that in his hands even a cobblestone will turn into pure gold.” A vain dream!

- But I have no other dream! - Michelangelo exclaimed. He turned to his father: “Deprive me of art, and there will be nothing left in me, I will be empty, like a rotten nut.”

You don't have to go to the Vatican to see the interior of the Sistine Chapel. You can fulfill your old dream thanks to a visit to ARTPLAY and a virtual excursion to the Sistine Chapel, where you can see the frescoes of Michelangelo Buonarotti. At this exhibition, you can learn about the High Renaissance in an hour, from the comfort of your ottoman. The exhibition is mainly devoted to the painting of the Sistine Chapel: the ceiling and the altar wall, which is one of the finest examples of the pinnacle of the Renaissance.

Jacopo del Conte. "Portrait of Michelangelo." Source: www.artita.ru

Michelangelo Buonarotti (1475 - 1564) dreamed of becoming a sculptor since childhood, and began his creative journey at an early age. adolescence in Florence. All his life he felt more like a sculptor or stonemason than a painter. Not that the father was delighted with this idea, but his son’s drawing in school lessons led to the fact that Michelangelo at the age of 12 came to the workshop of D. Ghirlandaio (a famous Florentine artist who painted frescoes). If you turn to the novel “Torment and Joy” about the biography of Michelangelo, you can see the following reaction of the father to the actions of his son: “Do you really think that I will allow you to ruin your life and become an artist? Disgrace our family? After all, in three hundred years, not a single Buonarroti has come to the point of earning a living with my own hands". In fact, the Buonarotti family was noble, although not rich. In the workshop, the young artist helps with the production of materials for covering the ceiling, paints tirelessly, but at the same time understands that frescoes are not his lifelong dream. There he learns the basic principle according to which he must be able to prepare both the surface for coating and paint, and at the same time, draw well. Otherwise, it will be impossible to tell the apprentices what is required of them. One day he learns that young sculptors are being trained in the Medici gardens and wants to go there. As fate would have it, Lorenzo the Magnificent Medici asks Ghirlandaio about best students, which could go into his gardens. The master named Michelangelo reluctantly because he did not want to give away such a capable student. But nevertheless it happened.

Separation of light from darkness

Michelangelo didn’t like the fact that he didn’t start cutting stone right away (he was entrusted with this craft a year later). This happened because Lorenzo the Magnificent and Bertoldo di Giovanni (Italian sculptor appointed curator of ancient sculptures and head of sculpture education - author's note a) wanted him to learn more. One of the first sculptural works was a Faun, copied from one of the ancient sculptures. Lorenzo de' Medici appreciated the sculptor's skill because after his remark that the elderly faun could not keep his teeth, Michelangelo removed them. Thanks to this step, Lorenzo invited the young sculptor to his palace.

Creation of the sun, moon and planets

Despite the fact that Michelangelo is one of the titans of the High Renaissance (cinquecento), he spent his entire life not as a court artist in luxury and recognition, but rather as a wanderer. He had to fulfill various orders for painting, sculpture, and architecture, which he did until his death. Among the regular customers were noble families and fathers, whose rapid change meant it was not always possible to complete orders, because they obliged to deal with current ones. The popes wanted their name to become immortal through commissions of works of art.

Separation of land from waters

It was Michelangelo who returned sculpture to the right to be called one of the forms of art, because before that sculpture was compared to simple stone cutting. Of course, in the 15th century there lived talented sculptors who created sculptures that were strikingly different from the medieval ones in their resemblance to reality. It would have been enough for Michelangelo to have been born forty years earlier - “...then he could have studied under the guidance of Ghiberti - or thirty to become a student of Donatello; had he been born twelve, ten or five years earlier, he would have been taught marble work by the brothers Pollaiuolo, Verrocchio or Luca della Robbia.” In his sculptures, he emphasized the material from which it was made, leaving some fragments (for example, pedestals) unhewn. Sculpting the sculpture required a lot of physical labor and endurance, but this only inspired the sculptor to work. Hard work did not stop him from working even at the end of his days.

Creation of Adam

“Sculpting a sculpture required a lot of physical labor and endurance, but this only inspired the sculptor to work. Hard work did not stop him from working even at the end of his days."

His achievements lie, firstly, in his virtuosic sculpting technique, so that the sculpture seems to take a breath of air, get up and walk. Secondly, the artist identified plots in the flow of ideas, which he reinterpreted and showed in a different light. One such example is the Pieta (Lamentation of Christ), installed in St. Peter's Church without a grand opening. This sculpture shows the end of Christ's life: his dead body lies in the arms of his mother, who is depicted young even after 33 years. This is the only sculpture that bears the master's signature "Michelangelo Buonarotti, Florentine, created this", according to legend, placed after an overheard conversation between two Lombardians and their thoughts that it was sculpted by Gobbo from Milan.

Creation of Eve

Another example is David, who differs significantly from the David of Verrocchio and Donatello not only in the size of the statue, but also in the material, in the emotions that the shepherd David experiences before the battle with Goliath. Moreover, they depicted David after the battle with Goliath, in contrast to Michelangelo, who depicted him before the battle. Only a man, not a teenager, could take such a serious step; this decision alone makes David more mature and courageous. The Florentines highly appreciated this work of art and installed it in the square in front of the Palazzo della Signoria (now Palazzo Vecchio), where religious and secular events took place, although it was originally intended that David would decorate the main Florentine cathedral - Santa Maria del Fiore. By the way, the Florentines believed that David personified Florence: a small city resists various threats while maintaining independence.

David. Source: jaimetrabuchelli.com

Michelangelo considered the tomb of Julius II, which should have contained about forty marble figures arranged on three tiers in the church, his life's work. Unfortunately, the idea was not destined to be fully realized because dad decided that it was too expensive and a long-term project. From the plan we managed to make a sculpture of Moses, several slaves, and the figure of Julius himself. Pope Julius II switched the artist's attention from the tomb to painting the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. The central place on the ceiling of the chapel is occupied by three semantic triads from the Old Testament:

• about the creation of the world: “The separation of light from darkness”, “The creation of the sun, moon and planets”, “The separation of the earth from the waters”. Interestingly, the color reddish-purple was used instead of ultramarine robes due to the insufficient budget allocated by Julius II.
• about the creation of the first people and sin: “The Creation of Adam”, “The Creation of Eve”, “Expulsion from Paradise”.
• cycle about Noah: “The Drunkenness of Noah”, “The Flood”, “The Sacrifice of Noah”.

Temptation of Eve by the Serpent and Expulsion of Adam and Eve from Paradise

Over the course of 4 years, he paid with his health, as he had to work on scaffolding while lying on his back. He started working with the last triad. There you can see a multi-figure composition. After completing the three frescoes, the artist convinced the Pope to remove the scaffolding and see what happened. As a result, Michelangelo saw that the accumulation of figures complicates perception, so the other two triads differ significantly from the first in the number of people and color. Body proportions, emotions, painting techniques are at their best.

Noah's drunkenness

Michelangelo loved to sketch peasants because they had muscular and wiry bodies. According to the artist, male body was more perfect compared to the female one. For the sake of mastering proportions, Michelangelo did not disdain dissecting corpses in order to study in detail the structure of the body, muscles, internal organs. And even the death penalty for such acts did not stop him, as did Leonardo da Vinci. The artist returns to the chapel twenty-five years later to paint another grandiose creation - the Last Judgment, located on the altar wall.

La creazione di Adamo

The fresco illustrates the episode

And God created man in His own image.

Fresco by Michelangelo Buonarroti, painted around 1511. The fresco is the fourth of nine central compositions on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, dedicated to the nine scenes of the book of Genesis.

Before we tell you about this wonderful fresco, let's learn a little about the artist Michelangelo himself.

M Michelangelo di Lodovico di Leonardo di Buonarroti Simoni

Michelangelo di Lodovico di Leonardo di Buonarroti Simoni

One of the greatest masters of the Renaissance. During his lifetime, he received recognition and was considered a genius of world significance. Italian sculptor, artist, architect, poet, thinker. One of the greatest masters of the Renaissance and early Baroque. His works were considered the highest achievements of Renaissance art during the lifetime of the master himself. Michelangelo lived for almost 89 years, an entire era, from the period of the High Renaissance to the origins of the Counter-Reformation. During this period, there were thirteen Popes - he carried out orders for nine of them. Many documents about his life and work have been preserved - testimonies from contemporaries, letters from Michelangelo himself, contracts, his personal and professional records. Michelangelo was also the first representative of Western European art whose biography was published during his lifetime.

Born into a Podesta family. Michelangelo studied with the painter Ghirlandaio (1488-89) and the sculptor Bertoldo di Giovanni (1489-90), but his greatest influence was creative development had works by Giotto, Donatello, Masaccio, Jacopo della Quercia, as well as ancient sculpture.

In 1488, on the advice best friend Francesco Granacci, Michelangelo, against the will of his father, enters as an apprentice in the workshop of the artist Domenico Ghirlandaio and studies there for a year.

A year later, Michelangelo moved to the school of the sculptor Bertoldo di Giovanni, which existed under the patronage of Lorenzo de' Medici, the de facto master of Florence.

The Medici recognized Michelangelo's talent and patronized him. For some time, Michelangelo lived in the Medici Palace. After the death of the Medici in 1492, Michelangelo returned home.

In 1494-1495, Michelangelo lived in Bologna, creating sculptures for the Arch of St. Dominic. In 1495, he returned to Florence, where the Dominican preacher Girolamo Savonarola ruled, and created the sculptures “St. Johannes” and “Sleeping Cupid”. In 1496, Cardinal Raphael Riario bought Michelangelo's marble "Cupid" and invited the artist to work in Rome, where Michelangelo arrived on June 25.

In 1499, Michelangelo again appeared in his native Florence and created for her a colossal statue of David, as well as paintings in the Council Chamber.

Giorgio Vasari, Michelangelo's first official biographer, wrote that "David" "robbed the glory of all statues, modern and ancient, Greek and Roman."

In 1505, the sculptor was summoned by Pope Julius II to Rome; he ordered a tomb for him. An eight-month stay in Carrara follows, selecting the marble necessary for the work. In 1505-1545, work was carried out (with interruptions) on the tomb, for which the sculptures “Moses”, “Bound Slave”, “Dying Slave”, “Leah” were created.

In February 1508, Michelangelo returned to Florence again. In May, at the request of Julius II, he goes to Rome to paint ceiling frescoes in the Sistine Chapel; He works on them until October 1512.

The Sistine Chapel

Former house church in the Vatican. It was built in 1473-1481. The architect of the church was Giorgio de Dolci. The chapel was built by order of Pope Sixtus IV, hence the name. Now the chapel is a museum, an outstanding monument of the Renaissance.

The ceiling painting of the Sistine Chapel is a famous cycle of frescoes by Michelangelo, created in 1508-1512 and considered one of the recognized masterpieces of High Renaissance art. The most difficult task set before him by Pope Julius II - Michelangelo, who called himself a sculptor, not a painter, had never had to carry out such a large-scale work using the fresco technique - the master completed in record time.

And the fresco “The Creation of Adam” is the fourth of the nine central compositions of the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.

"Since the Discovery of Adam"

The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, painted by Michelangelo between 1508 and 1512, is one of the most famous works of the High Renaissance. The Creation of Adam is one of the most famous paintings of all times.

The most ambitious of Michelangelo's realized plans. Having rejected the project proposed to him with the figures of the 12 apostles in the side parts of the vault and with the ornamental filling of its main part, Michelangelo developed his own program of paintings, which still causes different interpretations. The painting of the huge vault covering the vast (40.93 x 13.41 m) papal chapel includes 9 large compositions in the vault mirror on the themes of the book of Genesis - from the “Creation of the World” to the “Flood”.

What is the fresco about?

God the Father flies in infinite space, surrounded by wingless angels, with a flowing white tunic. Right hand stretched out towards Adam's hand and almost touches it. Adam's body lying on the green rock gradually begins to move and awakens to life. The entire composition is concentrated on the gesture of two hands. The hand of God gives an impulse, and the hand of Adam receives it, giving it to the whole body vital energy. By the fact that their hands do not touch, Michelangelo emphasized the impossibility of connecting the divine and the human. In the image of God, according to the artist’s plan, it is not the miraculous principle that prevails, but gigantic creative energy. In the image of Adam, Michelangelo glorifies the strength and beauty of the human body. In fact, what appears before us is not the creation of man itself, but the moment at which he receives a soul, a passionate search for the divine, a thirst for knowledge.

In 1508, Pope Julius II summoned the famous sculptor from his native Florence to Rome. Michelangelo already has behind him such masterpieces of sculpture as “The Lamentation of Christ” and “David”. It would be logical to assume that Julius II would invite the sculptor to sculpt a new statue. But no. At the instigation of Michelangelo’s ill-wishers, and primarily the Urbino-born architect Donato Bramante, who patronized his fellow countryman, the young Raphael Santi, and wanted to get his competitor out of his way, the pope invites Michelangelo to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. The ceiling area is about six hundred square meters! The enemy's plan was simple.

The artist accomplished his feat in just 26 months (working intermittently from May 10, 1508 to October 31, 1512). He painted the ceiling while lying on his back or sitting, throwing his head back. At the same time, his eyes were flooded with paint dripping from the brush, and his body was torn by unbearable pain from the uncomfortable position. But he created a creation that, in its grandeur, content and perfection, occupied a central place in the art of the High Renaissance.

Goethe wrote: “Without seeing the Sistine Chapel, it is difficult to form a clear idea of ​​what one person can do.”

However, looking more closely at the artist’s creation, you suddenly realize that Adam is not revived by the Lord, but by a huge brain, repeating in detail the structure of the human brain. Any biologist or doctor who knows the basics of anatomy should understand this. But century after century passed, and only after half a millennium Michelangelo’s plan was revealed to us. The master encrypted in this fresco that the act of creation was accomplished by the universal mind. Why didn’t Michelangelo even hint to his contemporaries during his lifetime what he actually depicted?

What is surprising is the fact that this fresco should be orthodox, since it is depicted inside the papal chapel, but it embodies the ideas and canons of the High Renaissance.

The idea of ​​man created in the image and likeness of the Creator, the ascension of the divine and great in human creation, and even the equality of earthly man with the Lord in creativity and spiritual aspirations is a very bold concept after the medieval worldview. Man here is a creature born for knowledge, inspiration, exploits and great achievements.
Viewers are impressed by the scale and monumentality of the fresco. This creation has become a masterpiece and even a symbol of Western European art.