"Creation of Adam" is the most striking part of Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel ceiling fresco "Genesis". The picture depicts the religious legend of God's creation of Adam. According to the "Bible", God created man from dust in his own image, breathed life into his nostrils to make him a "living man", named Adam, and placed him and his wife Eve in the Garden of Eden. ("The Old Testament, Genesis 2:7 "The Lord God formed man out of the dust of the ground, and he breathed in his nostrils, and he became a living being." 2:8 "The Lord God is in East of Eden planted a paradise, and put in it the man he formed.") Adam in this painting is a sturdy naked young man, although he is strong in stature, but lacks the vitality that should be expected. The sovereign God, Yahweh, draped in a great cloak, and accompanied by angels, flew toward him. God's energetic fingers were reaching out to Adam; Adam was lying idly on the hillside, with his left leg naturally curled and his left arm stretched out to God--it seemed that between the earth-shattering touch, his strong body and the whole body's body were completely swept away. Muscles will burst out with infinite power.
As one of the three masters of Renaissance art, Michelangelo's paintings naturally contain strong humanistic connotations. So, how is the spirit of humanism reflected in the Creation of Adam?
First of all, Michelangelo did not directly draw the scene in which God created Adam with ashes according to the Bible, but drew the moment when God's divine spark was about to touch Adam, thus miraculously juxtaposing man and God, improving the person's status.
Second, what did God give Adam through the touch of his fingers? I think it's the "soul of the gods," the ability to think rationally, and the wisdom. Anyone who appreciates this painting can clearly know that in the next second of the picture, the fingers of Adam and God will touch. So, what did Michelangelo want to convey when he chose to "untouched"? My understanding is that the tiny gaps between the two fingers are alluding to God's reservations in conveying "divine nature" - God will not make human beings as omniscient and omnipotent as himself, but only endow human beings with the ability to think rationally , so that human beings can master more and more knowledge and skills in the process of continuous search, and exercise their thinking ability and practical ability in the process of pursuing wisdom. The subjective initiative of human beings and the role of human beings are thus affirmed. In the next second, Adam will be refreshed, and with the help of his strong body, he will start his own journey of struggle.
The Creation of Adam embodies Michelangelo's praise for man's fitness, strength and intelligence, and his desire for man's awakening. This highly humanistic painting has been quoted countless times in later film, television and art works. Among them, the special work that influenced the childhood of a generation, and the pioneering work of Ultraman of the Heisei Department, "Ultraman Tiga", once paid tribute to "Creation of Adam".
In the 25th episode of "Ultraman Tiga", "Devil's Judgment", Tiga lost to the powerful Kyrierod and fell to the ground after losing his light. The onlookers picked up flashlights and gave Tiga light. In the end, Tiga stood up again surrounded by countless human rays of light. At the moment of getting up, we can see that Tiga is in the same pose as Adam in "Creating Adam"; the poster on the building next to Tiga is "Creating Adam". What is this fragment trying to convey? After Japan entered the Heisei era, Tsuburaya Company broke the conventional Chen style of "deified" Ultraman, and tried to create an Ultraman who was born on the earth and "de-divided". Tiga, who has superhuman strength, acts as Adam in this shot, accepting the infinite light endowed by human beings, which is the embodiment of the theme of "de-divine". This example is to illustrate: when we appreciate the tribute and restoration of "The Creation of Adam" in film and television works, we should pay special attention to "identity positioning", that is, "who acts as the position of God" and "who acts as the position of Adam".
Next, let us come to the narrative of "Super Body". "Super Body" has a bright line - as the percentage increases from 0 to 100, the heroine Lucy's humanity gradually loses, and her divinity continues to increase. When it reaches 100%, Lucy has become a god in the full sense. She sat in a chair and traveled through time and space, came to the primitive jungle stream, and met another Lucy (the ancestor of mankind). In this picture, the female protagonist is aloof, a fully transformed god, who acts as the God Jehovah in "Creation of Adam". Lucy the ape crouches under the chair, taking the place of Adam in the Creation of Adam. At the moment when the female protagonist Lucy and the ape Lucy touched the fingers, the picture changed rapidly, and the time and space changed again. The female protagonist's body disappeared, leaving behind a sentence "everywhere"; the ape-man Lucy was inspired by God and gained the ability to think, and from then on began the history of mankind on her own timeline.
If you follow this line of thinking, I believe that the entire "Super Body" is a "prequel" of human history, and this "prequel" obviously draws on the biblical narrative of human origins and endows it with a humanistic spirit. The film opens with a wonderful montage of the old scientist giving a speech on human intellect. One of the passages in particular caught my attention - "The only living creature that is better at using brains than humans is dolphins. Dolphins can use up to 20% of their brain capacity, and dolphins can have a brain that is better than humans. Any sonar is a more efficient echolocation system, but they did not invent the dolphin's sonar. This is the most critical part of our philosophical reflection today. Can we infer from this that the existence of humans is more Emphasize cultivation, not talent?"
Morgan Freeman's words try to explain that although dolphins can use 20% of their brain capacity and have an echolocation system that is more effective than any human sonar, these are not invented by dolphins, but are born. Humans are different. Although human beings have only developed about 10% of their brain capacity, it needs to be known that these 10% achievements are achieved through thousands of years of human efforts and countless generations of inheritance. From the invention of fire, to the production of words, to the industrial revolution, and even the current information age—human beings have always enhanced their ability to understand and transform the world through their interactions with nature and themselves. Humans are not born with a fully developed brain, but have undergone a continuous process of "nurture". This is so similar to Michelangelo's "untouched" design in "Creating Adam", and it also makes me believe in the "de-deified" core of "Superbody".
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