11. The Creation of Adam
The Creation of Adam by Michelangelo, whose rarely used his full name Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni, is perhaps the best-known component of the famous Sistine Chapel fresco painting. Fresco art is a technique that uses the application of dry pigment to wet lime plaster to infuse color directly into the plaster. As the plaster sets, the painting becomes a permanent and integral part of the plaster.
For the fresco painting of the Sistine Chapel, Michelangelo and his assistants had to stand the entire time they painted. Michelangelo rigged up different scaffolds to allow himself and his associates to reach the ceiling. However, the fresco technique required them to paint exclusively overhead.
Anyone who has painted a ceiling in their own home can only imagine how arduous it must have been to create such compelling and delicate paintings while painting overhead! Michelangelo was indeed a Renaissance man in every sense of the word. He was a crucial player in the High Renaissance period and was a poet, sculptor, and architect in addition to being a painter. Born in Florence, Italy in 1475, Michelangelo has had an incredible amount of influence over the development of western art. Alongside his rival, Leonardo da Vinci, he is one of the fathers of Renaissance Europe.
