Michelangelo - The Creation of Adam Man - Sistine Chapel - Medici art postcard

Art Postcard
• Work of art title: The Creation of Man [or Adam as now usually known], Sistine Chapel
• Artist (if known): Michelangelo
• Media or other details:  painting
• Publisher / Gallery: Medici Society c.1930s
• Postally used:  no
• Stamp & postmark details (if relevant): na
• Size: modern
• Notes & condition details: mild expected ageing

NOTES:

Size: 'Modern' is usually around 6in x 4in / 'Old Standard' is usually around 5 1/2in x 3 1/2in. Larger sizes mentioned, but if you need to know the exact size please ask.

All postcards are not totally new and are pre-owned. It's inevitable that older cards may show signs of ageing and use, particularly sent through the post. Any faults other than normal ageing are noted.

Stock No.: A342

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Postage & Packing:

UK (incl. IOM, CI & BFPO): 99p

Europe: GBP 1.60

Rest of world (inc. USA etc): GBP 2.75

No additional charges for more than one postcard. You can buy as many postcards from me as you like and you will just pay the fee above once. (If buying postcards with other things such as books, please contact or wait for invoice before paying).

Payment Methods:

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Outside UK: PayPal only please (unless otherwise indicated).   NO non-UK currency checks or money orders (sorry).

NOTE: All postcards are sent in brand new stiffened envelopes which I have bought for the task. These are specially made to protect postcards and you may be able to re-use them. In addition there are other costs to sending so the above charge is not just for the stamp!

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Text from the free encyclopedia WIKIPEDIA may appear below to give a little background information:

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The Creation of Adam is a section of Michelangelo's fresco Sistine Chapel ceiling painted circa 1511. It is traditionally thought to illustrate the Biblical creation narrative from the Book of Genesis in which God breathes life into Adam, the first man. Chronologically the fourth in the series of panels depicting episodes from Genesis on the Sistine ceiling, it was among the last to be completed. It is the most well-known of the Sistine Chapel fresco panels, and its fame as a piece of art is rivaled only by the Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci. The image near-touching hands of God and Adam has become one of the single most iconic images of humanity and has been reproduced in countless imitations and parodies. Along with Leonardo da Vinci's The Last Supper, The Creation of Adam and the other Sistine Chapel panels are the most replicated religious paintings of all time.

God is depicted as an elderly white-bearded man wrapped in a swirling cloak while Adam, on the lower left, is completely nude. 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, a reminder that man is created in the image and likeness of God (Gen 1:26). Another point is that Adam's finger and God's finger are not touching. It gives the impression that God, the giver of life, is reaching out to Adam and Adam is receiving.

Many hypotheses have been formulated regarding the identity and meaning of the figures around God. The person protected by God's left arm might be Eve due to the figure's feminine appearance and gaze towards Adam, but was also suggested to be Virgin Mary, Sophia, the personified human soul, or an angel of feminine build.^[1]

The Creation of Adam is generally thought to depict the excerpt ""God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him"" (Genesis 1: 27). The inspiration for Michelangelo's treatment of the subject may come from a medieval hymn called Veni Creator Spiritus, which asks the 'finger of the paternal right hand' (digitus paternae dexterae) to give the faithful speech.^[2]

Several hypotheses have been put forward about the meaning of The Creation of Adam's highly original composition, many of them taking Michelangelo's well-documented expertise in human anatomy as their starting point. In 1990, an Anderson, Indiana physician named Frank Lynn Meshberger, M.D. noted in the medical publication the Journal of the American Medical Association that the background figures and shapes portrayed behind the figure of God appeared to be an anatomically accurate picture of the human brain.^[3] Dr. Meshberger's interpretation has been discussed by Dr. Mark Lee Appler.^[4] On close examination, borders in the painting correlate with major sulci of the cerebrum in the inner and outer surface of the brain, the brain stem, the frontal lobe, the basilar artery, the pituitary gland and the optic chiasm.^[5] Meshberger also argues that there appears to be communication present despite the gap between the depicted Adam and God, just as neurons transmit biochemical information across synaptic clefts. Further, below the right arm of God, the painting shows a sad angel in an area of the brain that is sometimes activated on PET scans when someone experiences a sad thought. God is superimposed over the limbic system, the emotional center of the brain and possibly the anatomical counterpart of the human soul. God's right arm extends to the prefrontal cortex, the most creative and most uniquely human region of the brain.

Alternatively, it has been observed that the red cloth around God has the shape of a human uterus (one art historian has called it a ""uterine mantle""^[6]), and that the scarf hanging out, coloured green, could be a newly cut umbilical cord.

The Creation of Adam is one of the most well-known and famous artworks of all time, and as such has been the subject of a number of references and parodies. Many of these parodies substitute different characters for God, Adam, or both. In the disaster film 2012, the entire College of Cardinals are seen praying silently under the ceiling. The ceiling then starts to crack, commencing at the point where God's and Adam's fingers nearly touch, dividing the two.

type=printed postcards

theme=artists signed

sub-theme=art

number of items=single

period=inter-war (1918 - 1939)

postage condition=unposted