God Revisited, after Michelangelo

 
God Revisited, after Michelangelo | 64”x 80” | Oil on Canvas
 
As commissioned, I have revisited this portion of the scene, The Creation of Adam, from Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel paintings. My client wanted this painting to add color to his home by intensifying the chroma of the fabrics, particularly the red, as the original art may have appeared when first painted.
 
To add personal fun and significance to the painting, the client had me replace five of the faces around God with the faces of five of his grandchildren. I met with the children and their parents in a family home for a photo shoot wherein I had each of the children pose at the angle of each head in the original art. I took care to have the direction of the light match as well. Back at the studio I chose which head to put in which place and drew them in.
The children were wonderful models, very cooperative.
 
I admit, I was nervous about painting from such an iconic Michelangelo image as this. Still, it was a fun project, from which I gained some unique experience and additional confidence as a painter.
 
FYI. At age 33 Michelangelo was asked by Pope Julius II to decorate the Sistine Chapel’s Ceiling. Michelangelo considered himself a sculptor rather than a painter, and he had no experience whatsoever with frescoes. He reluctantly accepted the commission, spending four years of his life perched on scaffolding with his brush in hand.
 
Contrary to popular belief, Michelangelo, and his assistants, painted the Sistine Chapel in a standing position on wooden scaffolds which were attached to the walls with brackets. This allowed them to stand upright and reach above their heads. I can’t imagine how tired and sore their arms and necks must have been.
 
In 1509, an increasingly uncomfortable Michelangelo described the physical strain of the Sistine Chapel project to his friend Giovanni da Pistoia, and stated “I am not in the right place - I am not a painter.” I am sure glad he painted anyway, what a wonderful painter he truly was.
 
Often we think ourselves to be inadequate for some task or undertaking. I hope we will take a lesson from Michelangelo and do it anyway. Perhaps we too will add something great to the world.
 
Additionally, some theorists think the scene also contains the unmistakable outline shape of a human brain, formed by the red fabric surrounding God and his subjects. According to Frank Lynn Meshberger, a doctor who pioneered this hypothesis, Michelangelo meant to evoke God’s bestowal of intelligence on the first human.
 
"You should have the Art you Love."