1990 creation of adam - neuroanatomy (jama)

8/17/2019 1990 Creation of Adam - Neuroanatomy (JAMA)

1/5

An Interpretation of Michelangelo'sCreation of AdamBased on NeuroanatomyFrank Lynn Meshberger, MD

And God said, Let us make man in ourimage, after our likeness. . . .So God created man in his own image,in the image ofGod created He him. .

. .

And the Lord God formed man of thedust of the ground, and breathed intohis nostrils the breath of life; and manbecame a living soul.

And the Lord God planted a gardeneastward in Eden, and there he put theman

whom he had formed.And out of the ground made the LordGod to grow every tree that is pleasant tothe sight, and good for food; the tree oflife also in the midst ofthe garden, andthe tree ofknowledge ofgood and evil.

Now the serpent was more subtil thanany beast ofthefield which the Lord Godhad made. And he said unto the woman,Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat ofevery tree of the garden? And the wom-an said unto the serpent, We may eat ofthe fruit of the trees of the garden: Butthefruit ofthe tree which is in the midst

of the garden, God hath said, Ye shallnot eat ofit, neither shall ye touch it, lestye die. And the serpent said unto thewoman, Ye shall not surely die: ForGod doth know that in the day ye eatthereof, then your eyes shall be opened,and ye shall be as gods, knowing goodand evil.

Book of Genesis

King James Version

THE BRILLIANT Italian Renaissanceartist Michelangelo Buonarroti paintedmagnificent frescoes on the ceiling ofthe Vatican's Sistine Chapel, laboringfrom 1508 to 1512. Commissioned byPope Julius II, Michelangelo performedthis work himself without assistance.Scholars debate whether he had anyguidance from the Church in the selec¬tion ofthe scenes, and what meaning thescenes were to convey. In the fresco

traditionally called the Creation ofAdam, but which might be more aptlytitled the Endowment of Adam, I be¬lieve that Michelangelo encoded a spe¬cial message. It is a message consistentwith thoughts he expressed in his son¬nets. Supreme in sculpture and paint¬ing, he understood that his skill was inhis brain and not in his hands. He be¬lieved that the "divine part" we "re¬ceive" from God is the "intellect." In the

following sonnet, Michelangelo explainshow he creates sculpture and paintingand how, I believe, God himself gaveman the gift of intellect1:

After the divinepart

has wellconceived

Man's face and gesture, soon bothmind and hand,

With a cheap model, first, at theircommand,

Give life to stone, but this is notachieved

By skill. In painting, too, this isperceived:

Only after the intellect has plannedThe best and highest, can the ready

handTake up the brush and try all things

received.

The sculpture and painting of Michel¬angelo reflect the great knowledge ofanatomy that he acquired by perform¬ing dissections of the human body. Hisexperience in dissection is documentedin Lives of the Artists, written by hiscontemporary, Georgio Vasari.2 Vasarisays, "For the church of Santo Spirito inFlorence Michelangelo made a crucifixof wood which was placed above thelunette of the high altar, where it still is.He made this to please the prior, who

placed rooms at his disposal where Mi¬chelangelo very often used to flay deadbodies in order to discover the secrets of

anatomy. ..."The Creation of Adam fresco shows

Adam and God reaching toward o ne an¬other, arms outstretched, fingers al¬most touching. One can imagine thespark of life jumping from God to Adamacross that synapse between their fin¬

gertips. However, Adam is alreadyalive, his eyes are open, and he is com¬pletely formed; but it is the intent of thepicture that Adam is to "receive" some¬thing from God. I believe there is a third

"main character" in the fresco that hasnot previously been recognized. I wouldlike to show this by looking at four trac¬ings, Figs 1 through 4, and by reviewinggross neuroanatomy, using works byFrank Netter, MD, illustrator of TheCIBA Collection of Medical Illustra¬tions, Volume I—The Nervous System.

Examine Figs 1 and 2 to see if there isany similarity between them. ExamineFigs 3 and 4 and decide if these figuresare similar or dissimilar. Take enoughtime inspecting the figures so that your

From St John's Medical Center, Anderson, Ind.

Reprint requests to 2101 Jackson St, Anderson, IN46014(Dr Meshberger)

wnloaded From: http://jama.jamanetwork.com/ by a University of Toronto Libraries User on 08/01/2015


2/5

Figure 1.

Figure 3.

Figure 5.

y

Figure 2.

Figure 4.

Figure 6.



3/5

Figure 7.

Figure 9.

Figure 8.

Figúrelo.



4/5

Figure 11.

Figure 12. Figure 13.



5/5

mind may form its own image of them.Proceeding to the neuroanatomy, Fig

5 shows a saggital section of the skull;the brain, which lies in the cranium,takes its shape from it. Study the pic¬ture to gain an overall impression of theshape of the cranium. Figure 6 showsthe left lateral aspect of the brain andillustrates the sulci and gyri that arepresent in the hemispheres. The fissure

of Silvius, or lateral cerebral fissure,separates the frontal lobe from the tem¬poral lobe. Figure 1 is a tracing of thisillustration. Figure 7 depicts the medialaspect of the right hemisphere; Fig8 is atracing of the brain and spinal cord por¬tion of this illustration. The sulcus cin-guli separates the gyrus cinguli from thesuperior frontal gyrus and paracentralgyrus. The parietal lobe is divided intothe cuneus and lingular gyrus. The pitu¬itary gland is seen lying in the pituitaryfossa; the fact that the pituitary is bi-lobed can be seen grossly. The pons, thebulbous upward extension of the spinalcord, is noted. Immediately in front ofthe pituitary gland is the cross section ofthe optic chiasm. Figure 3 is derivedfrom Fig 8 by removing both the cere¬bellum and the midbrain structures in¬ferior to the gyrus cinguli and rotatingthe spinal cord posteriorly from thestandard anatomic position.

Figure 9 is the inferior surface of thebrain. From the optic chiasm, the opticnerves extend rostrally, and the optictracts pass backward across the cere-

bral pedicles. The basilar artery,formed by the junction ofthe two verte¬bral arteries, extends from the inferiorto the superior border of the pons. Fig¬ure 10 shows the vertebral artery run¬ning cranial-ward through the foramenin the transverse processes of the cervi¬cal vertebrae to the inferior surface ofthe skull. The vertebral artery bendsabruptly around the articular process of

the atlas and makes another abruptbend to enter the cranial cavity throughthe foramen magnum, where it j oins theother vertebral artery to form the basi¬lar artery.

Having studied these images of neu-roanatomy, proceed to Michelangelo'sCreation of Adam (Fig 11) and look atthe image that surrounds God and theangels.

This image has the shape of a brain.Figure 12 shows that Fig2 is obtained

by tracing the outer shell and the sulcus.Figure 13 shows that Fig 4 is a tracing ofthe outer shell and of major lines in thefresco of God and the angels. Therefore,Figs 1 and 3 are tracings of neuroana-tomy drawn by Frank Netter, and Figs2 and 4 are tracings from the Creation ofAdam by Michelangelo.

The sulcus cinguli extends along thehip of the angel in front of God, acrossGod's shoulders, and down God's leftarm, extending over Eve's forehead.The flowing green robe at the base rep¬resents the vertebral artery in its up¬ward course as it twists and turns

around the articular process and thenmakes contact with and proceeds alongthe inferior surface of the pons. Theback of the angel extending laterallybelow God represents the pons, and theangel's hip and leg represent the spinalcord. The pituitary stalk and gland aredepicted by the leg and foot of the angelthat extends below the base of the pic¬ture. Note that the feet of both God and

Adam have five toes; however, the an¬gel's leg that represents the pituitarystalk and gland has a bifid foot. Thissame angel's right leg is flexed at the hipand knee; the thigh represents the opticnerve, the knee the transected optic chi¬asm, and the leg the optic tract.

The important point, however, is notto identify minute neuroanatomic struc¬tures in the fresco, but to see that thelarger image encompassing God is com¬patible with a brain. Michelangelo por¬trays that what God is giving to Adam isthe intellect, and thus man is able to"plan the best and highest" and to "tryall things received."

The drawings by Frank Netter, MD (Figs 5,6, 7,9, and 10), were reproduced from The CIBA Collec¬tion of Medical Illustrations, Volume 1—The Ner¬vous System, Part I, copyright 1986, with the per¬mission of CIBA Pharmaceutical Company.

References

1. Tusianai J. The Complete Poems ofMichelange-lo. New York, NY : Noonday Press; 1960:146-147.2. Vasari G; Bull G, trans. Lives of the Artists.Middlesex, England: Penguin Classics; 1965:332\x=req-\333.

1990 creation of adam - neuroanatomy (jama)

Documents