Michelangelo's Most Famous Sistine Chapel Fresco

"So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him, male and female created he them." And it is of course Michelangelo's famous Sistine Chapel painting of two outstretched hands, actually just a small part in the visual puzzle The Creation of Adam, which has burned an indelible image into our collective cultural consciousness. It is certainly the world's best known vision of Creation - a vision in which strangely, in Michelangelo's mesmerizing cosmology, Eve already exists (she is seen next to God as a beautiful heavenly attendant).

It is not only that world famous representation of God's outstretched finger, his breath of life about to bring to life his majestic creation, it is in fact the hub which the rest of the Renaissance masterpiece revolves around. The fourth panel in a series of nine, it also forms the centerpiece of the breathtaking Sistine Chapel itself. Few images are more easily recognized than this stunning work, and few works of art have been analyzed more thoroughly. But the fascination with this enigmatic masterpiece remains nevertheless. Indeed, "true believers" think that this titanic fresco has a near magical (mystical?) and quite irresistible power. And many a skeptic will also agree that the work places visitors in its presence under a type of hypnotic spell.

The Creation of Adam , actually entitled The Creation of Man, is at any rate the true masterpiece in this masterly Michelangelo series and the piece which many believe best exemplifies how Michelangelo's genius has reached its high-water mark. Although disgusted with the times he lived in and the jealous rivals and naysayers who insisted that a sculptor could not paint, Michelangelo defiantly showed the world what he thought of it and spitefully completed this world treasure. And he did so in the time and in the fashion he thought appropriate - the series was actually painted backward.

Known as he was for his intensive use of symbolism in all of the many Italian Renaissance masterpieces he created, Michelangelo chose to make no exception here, either. Experts have marveled at the visual metaphors and puns, even elements of humor he used throughout the years. And there are a number of strange elements in this work too which have yet to be fully understood or explained in any satisfactory way; the sibyls, the prophets, the nude figures and particularly the highly peculiar scenes in the medallions within the fresco.

It is likely that many of the numerous unexplained symbols seen in the work are meant to represent a form of contemporary social criticism. Many other symbols are also probably a direct reflection of the political and cultural climate which reigned in Florence, Michelangelo's artistic home, at the time when the work was being completed in the early sixteenth century. Italy found itself in an era influenced by Neo-Platonic teachings then, teachings which stressed the belief that art itself was divine in origin, just like physical beauty and intellect were thought to be. It is probable that The Creation of Adam is Michelangelo's own personal declaration of this belief, his statement that his work is in fact God's work and that, for this reason, a strict adherence to more traditional religious symbolism was no longer necessary.

But whatever the interpretation of his visual puzzles and symbolism may have been, anyone who has had the chance to wonder at The Creation of Adam will agree that it is a truly magnificent work. Regardless of the symbolic interpretation one chooses to believe or not believe in, it is a masterpiece that is truly unsurpassed. Whether or not Michelangelo wanted his work to be seen as a type of statement about his views concerning divinity and intellect will never be known, nor all that important. Important is the work itself, and that is has survived - and recently been restored - and that we all have the chance to experience it, a chance you should not let slip away lightly.