The Sistine Chapel ceiling features a prominent piece of art. It is located among eight other frescoes. This fourth panel depicts the story of Adam’s creation, which is an event that should have set off life and marked the beginnings of humankind. This scene was popular among artists who wanted to add to the rich heritage of Renaissance religious art. However, Michelangelo’s Creation of Adam is still one of the most famous interpretations. Michelangelo is not the only artist who liked religious symbolism. Michelangelo illustrates his conception of a perfect birth by using symbolic patterns. 16th-century contemporaries referred to terribilita simply as the ability to instill terror, amazement or a sense that the sublime is possible through art. The word terribilita is not an artistic term before Michelangelo. Giorgio Vasari was an Italian painter, writer and poet who first described his frescoes in terribilita. Vasari believes artists have the Divine Manu. They are divine hands that can create and destroy. Michelangelo therefore would be the counterpart to a wrathful God which inspires terror. It is important to note that Michelangelo got his inspiration for the Sistine Chapel painting from his anger at Julius II the pope, who imitated God’s furious outbursts. Michelangelo could have, in defiance of Julius II, transposed the Pope’s fury onto the figure God to make fun of him.
The Sistine Chapel ceiling’s Creation of Adam shows off the peremptory and potent will of God, expressed through gestures and expressions as well as the proportions of each character’s bodies. The Creator appears as if he is flying across the painting. Each of His gestures is an ordered sequence of power. The Creation of Adam culminates further in the notion of Terribilita. Adam, God the creator has brought Adam to life. Adam sits on his elbow and looks uncertainly at God. This is a mute exchange between will and power. The interspace that divides God from Adam’s index fingers represents the materialization and integration of the different natures of the terrestrial and divine universes. The painting’s small size is symbolic of an immeasurable space that cannot be filled and crossed. There is also a clear contrast between God and Adam’s hand. The former is very limp, while God’s hands are full of vitality and strength. The command to touch the finger indicates that God alone can grant the gift life. God uses his extended arm to communicate his spiritual and bodily energy to his creation. The Genesis marks an important event. The passing of the spark of creation from Creator to Creation is a significant turning point. The Creation scene of Adam seems to be the consequence. All of these scenes are the result God’s wrath. In which the Creator is a destroyer.
Michelangelo has created a figurative representation of God that conveys the idea terribilita. He has the appearance of an elderly man with strong features. His gestures are resolute, even though his hair is greying. The scene shows an extraordinary sense of power coming directly from God. A choir of angels is backing him. Michelangelo doesn’t just create Seraphins and Archangels to be placed in the fresco. Instead, he gives these celestial beings that seizing sense and realism. God is therefore seen as the center, the point from where power emanates. Many have used the analogy of God’s purple vest and the cranial container containing his brain. The brain, which is the source all energies, is a core that carries intelligence, will, resolution. (Meshberger & Frank Lynn) God gives intelligence to his creation and allows him to make decisions and think. This link between God’s function with a brain supports the idea that God can do more than just create life. He can also take it away. This fresco not only shows God the Creator’s power but also serves to illustrate the perfect birth. God has one hand extended, one elbow bent, and one foot extended, one foot bent. This is transposed onto Adam’s bodily position, making clear that God made Adam in his image.
Adam was born a man at birth. Adam is athletic and young, which makes him a lot like the Creator. Adam’s nudity (a sign of purity) is the only difference. Adam’s figure is far more than an image of a young healthy man. Contemporary artists see him as the epitome of the ideal divine person. It is obvious that God is dressed. This is not surprising, considering that nudity was originally a tribute to Ancient Rome’s classical sculptures. This is because God is actually a synthesis or good and bad. He has both.
Michelangelo’s art has shown God in all its glory, as Creator and destroyer. The Creation of Adam, which he depicts, is connected to the ceiling in the Sistine Chapel. This event seems to trigger all of the subsequent panels in the book. His art can help us understand so many things, especially his sculptures. He was primarily a sculptor.
Adam is not “born” as we know it. Jiang 5 Michelangelo is a key contributor to Renaissance art as well as the frescoes of the Sistine Chapel.
Bibliography:
Barolsky, Paul. “Michelangelo’s Nose”: A Myth & Its Maker. Pennsylvania University Press publishes scholarly texts. https://books.google.ca/books?id=KwM03ken S4C&pg=PA120&lpg=PA120&dq=terribilita+michelangelo&source=bl&ots=EfZ pxeM6sQ&sig=ACfU3U3QNgCT4mB4n5gkz- 8ekZxdOjVhxA&hl=fr&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiC152T2enlAhVCh- AKHVkuA1EQ6AEwEHoECAoQAQ#v=onepage&q=terribilita%20michelangel o&f=false
Houston, Joe. “Envisioning Origins. ? Phi Kappa Phi Forum, vol. 89, no. 1, Spring 2009, pages. 16-17. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=cookie,ip,url&db=aph& AN=37008324&site=host-live
Frank Lynn Meshberger “Interpretation of Michelangelo’s Creation of Adam Using Neuroanatomy. JAMA: Journal of the American Medical Association. Vol. 264, no. 14, Oct. 1990, pp. 1837-1841. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1001/jama.1990.03450140059034.
RzepiEska, Maria. “The Divine Wisdom and Creation of Adam by Michelangelo. Artibus Et Historiae, vol. 15, no. 29, 1994, pp. 181-187. JSTOR. www.jstor.org/stable/1483492
