High Renaissance · c. 1512
The Creation of Adam
Two hands almost touch. Michelangelo turned the creation of humanity into a gap charged with movement.
- Made
- c. 1512
- Style
- High Renaissance
- Collection
- Sistine Chapel, Vatican City
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From museum to game table
The in-game crop
The card adds paint spaces, rewards and a frame. This crop shows the artwork area used during play, without the card rails.
The short history
What happened here?
The fresco belongs to the central sequence on the Sistine Chapel ceiling. Michelangelo painted the vast ceiling between 1508 and 1512, working on wet plaster in sections.
Adam rests heavily on the earth. God moves toward him inside a rushing group of figures and cloth. Their nearly touching fingers hold the instant before life passes between them.
The image became famous far beyond its chapel setting. Restoration completed in 1994 removed centuries of soot and glue, revealing a much brighter range of pink, green and blue.
Look closer
Three details worth finding
- 1The small charged space between two fingers
- 2Adam's body echoing God's pose
- 3The sweeping mantle that carries the heavenly group
Sources
Read further
Museum records come first. Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons provide useful public background and image records.