La creazione di Eva

This is one of the nine central scenes on the Sistine Chapel ceiling, which Michelangelo painted between 1508 and 1512 for Pope Julius II, a warrior pope often away on military campaigns while the plaster dried far below. Michelangelo thought of himself as a sculptor and resented being pulled up onto the scaffolding to paint at all. Here Eve rises from the side of the sleeping Adam at a quiet gesture from God, who stands solidly on the ground rather than sweeping through the air as He does in the more famous panels close by. It sits almost exactly at the middle of the ceiling's long story. By the time he reached the later scenes Michelangelo had loosened his grip and painted far larger, bolder figures, which is why this measured, contained group feels closer to how he began overhead.