Michelangelo, Creation of Adam

Michelangelo was brought into the Medici household when he was only 13 years old. While he lived there, he met and associated with princes, scholars, poets, etc. who frequented the Medici court. Included in this group was Pico della Mirandola, a humanist scholar whose ideas Michelangelo echoes in his Creation of Adam. A dynamic figure of God rushes toward Adam to give him not only physical life but intellectual and spiritual life as well, or as Pico writes, “seeds of every kind.” This idea is supported by the shape of the drapery flowing around God, which is in the shape of the cross section of a brain. Michelangelo performed dissections and knew how the body worked. He combined this with his humanist education to create this spiritually and intellectually charged image. Under God’s arm is a woman who has been identified as either Eve or Mary.