The Creation of Adam

Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel scene of God reaching out to give life to Adam — and the most-memed detail in the history of art.

Origin

Painted between 1508 and 1512 on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Rome, commissioned by Pope Julius II. Michelangelo painted lying on his back on scaffolding, complaining bitterly in letters and poems about the work. The central image — God's outstretched finger nearly touching Adam's — is one of dozens of scenes on the ceiling but has come to stand for the whole. The cloud around God has been read by neuroanatomists as a cross-section of the human brain, possibly intentionally.

Modern usage

The touching-fingers gesture is universal shorthand for connection, divine spark, or any moment of contact — recreated in countless ads, memes, T-shirts, and reaction GIFs (E.T., aliens, hands holding pizza). 'The Creation of Adam moment' means the symbolic instant before two things meet.

Jesus of Nazareth

The Jewish preacher whose teaching, execution, and reported resurrection became the central reference point of two thousand years of Western culture.

artwork

Sculpture

Pietà

Michelangelo's marble of the Virgin Mary cradling the body of the crucified Christ — the canonical image of grief.

artwork

Sculpture

David (Michelangelo)

Michelangelo's 5-meter marble nude of the biblical David at the moment before fighting Goliath — the canonical image of the heroic male nude.

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