In the context of The Creation of Adam, explain the Studies of a Reclining Male Nude of the Critical sketches.
In a well known study in red chalk in the British Museum, Adam is resting on earth, propped up by his forearm, with his thighs spread out and his torso slightly twisted to the side. Michelangelo employed a male model to capture this pose and used his red chalk to develop thick contours, in order to establish a definitive form, so every chapel visitor could clearly recognize the muscular body from standing on the floor, 68 feet below the ceiling.In Michelangelo's final fresco on the ceiling, Adam is physically beautiful, but spiritually still incomplete. The sketch prefaces this story, as it is also incomplete in the sense that the only complete component of the drawing is Adam's twisted torso. Adam's other limbs bleed off of the trimmed page in immature form. However, the work is not "unfinished", as it reached its purpose for Michelangelo, which was to work out the details of the torso in the medium of chalk, so he was confident in the composition when he began the actual, permanent fresco panel.
British Museum torso fresco chapel man Michelangelo Adam Adam's