Michelangelo’s Masterpiece Reclaimed

The Sistine Chapel: A Glorious Restoration

ed. by Pierluigi De Vecchi (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1994), 271 pp., 312 illus., $75.00

Spanning a void, two index fingers stretch toward each other, not yet touching, yet implying in the space between them God’s creative power. Incontestably the most famous image in Christian art, Michelangelo’s Creation of Adam from the Sistine Chapel ceiling in the Vatican has been copied, adapted, distorted—even spoofed.