A painting a day · No. 5 of 38
The Creation of Adam
Michelangelo (1475–1564)
c. 1508–1512 · Fresco · Sistine Chapel ceiling, Vatican City
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The story
One scene from the Sistine Chapel ceiling, which Michelangelo painted for Pope Julius II while standing on scaffolding, looking up. He called himself a sculptor, not a painter, and did not want the job.
Look closer
- The fingers do not touch. The small gap is the whole drama.
- Adam's hand hangs limp; God's is tense and reaching.
- The red cloak around God and the angels has the outline of a human brain — a doctor pointed this out in the medical journal JAMA in 1990.
Did you know
Fresco is painted into wet plaster, so the colour becomes part of the wall. The painter can only lay as much plaster as he can paint in one day.
Why we can show it
Michelangelo died in 1564. UK copyright lasts for the artist’s life plus 70 years, so even under today’s rules this painting would have been free for anyone to show since 1635. The photograph is a faithful copy of a flat work, which creates no new copyright. We do not store the picture: it comes from Wikimedia Commons each time it is needed. More on this.