Focusing on the Critical sketches of The Creation of Adam, discuss the Sources about the Studies of a Reclining Male Nude.
Sources Michelangelo's inspiration for the torso in the British Museum sketch, is believed to be the Belvedere Torso. The Belvedere Torso is a fragmentary marble statue that is a 1st century BC Roman copy of an ancient Greek sculpture. Michelangelo historically used ancient, classical statuary as inspiration for the human physique in his great masterpieces. In 2015, the Belvedere Torso was displayed with Michelangelo's sketch in the "Defining Beauty: The Body in Ancient Greek Art" show at the British Museum in London.
Fair as the young men of the Elgin marbles, the Adam of the Sistine Chapel is unlike them in a total absence of that balance and completeness which express so well the sentiment of a self-contained, independent life. In that languid figure there is something rude and satyr-like, something akin to the rugged hillside on which it lies. His whole form is gathered into an expression of mere expectation and reception; he has hardly strength enough to lift his finger to touch the finger of the creator; yet a touch of the finger-tips will suffice.
Sistine Chapel British Museum torso Torso Elgin marbles satyr Belvedere Torso man Michelangelo Adam marble statue British Museum in London