In the chapel’s most famous, seemingly male-centric image, God reaches his index finger to touch Adam’s, symbolically giving him life. Yet the creator’s other arm drapes over Eve, holding her to his chest. Locate the exact center of the ceiling and you won’t find God, Jesus, or Adam, but instead Eve’s face and torso. In the panel depicting their temptation, Adam appears to be reaching for the taboo fruit just as much as his partner, who sits curled around his legs, her head directly next to his semi-erect penis—an image the Vatican considered so scandalous, it wasn’t reproduced for centuries. And Eve isn’t alone. For every male patriarch on the walls, Michelangelo includes a woman, illustrating the importance of duality and cooperation, not hierarchy.
Biblical Rebels And Romantics In The First Love Story by Brian Gresko
