File:Creation of adam in the cappella sistina.jpg

Summary

First, some interesting Sistine Chapel history. The Sistine Chapel is rectangular and measures 40.93 meters (134.28 feet) long by 13.41 meters (44 feet) wide (the dimensions of the Temple of Solomon, as given in the Old Testament). And to give you an idea of the timeline, the first mass in the Sistine Chapel was celebrated on August 9, 1483.

Frescoes line the walls and the ceiling. The walls were painted over an astonishingly short period of time, barely eleven months, from July 1481 to May 1482.

In 1508 Michelangelo was commissioned by Pope Julius II to paint the ceiling of the chapel. It took him until 1512 to complete. He worked from a a flat wooden platform on brackets while he painted. Unreal.

In "The Creation of Adam" God is depicted as a bearded old man wrapped in a swirling cloak that he shares with some cherubim. His left arm is wrapped around a female figure, normally interpreted as Eve, who is not yet created and, figuratively, waits in heaven to be given an earthly form. God's right arm is outstretched to impart the spark of life from his own finger into that of Adam, whose left arm is extended in a pose mirroring God's. Famously, Adam's finger and God's finger are separated by a slight distance.

Copyright status:

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en_US

Source:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/roblisameehan/336071768/