[2]: 12  Michelangelo persuaded Pope Julius to give him a free hand and proposed a different and more complex scheme,[6]: 43  representing the Creation, the Fall of Man, the Promise of Salvation through the prophets, and the genealogy of Christ.

The inspiration for Michelangelo's treatment of the subject may come from a medieval hymn, "Veni Creator Spiritus", which asks the 'finger of the paternal right hand' (digitus paternae dexterae) to give the faithful speech.

According to an interpretation that was first proposed by the English art critic Walter Pater (1839–1894) and is now widely accepted, the person protected by God's left arm represents Eve, due to the figure's feminine appearance and gaze towards Adam,[15][16] and the eleven other figures symbolically represent the souls of Adam and Eve's unborn progeny, the entire human race.

Several hypotheses have been put forward about the meaning of The Creation of Adam's highly original composition, many of them taking Michelangelo's well-documented expertise in human anatomy as their starting point.

[19][20] Alternatively, it has been observed that the red cloth around God has the shape of a human uterus (one art historian has called it a "uterine mantle"[21]) and that the scarf hanging out, coloured green, could be a newly cut umbilical cord.

[24] There is significant evidence that Michelangelo radically disagreed with many Catholic traditions and had a tumultuous relationship with the commissioner of the ceiling, Pope Julius II.

Thus, Campos suggests that the rib inclusion was an intentional way to slight Pope Julius II and the Catholic Church, without having to admit fault, as very few people knew anything about human anatomy at the time and could challenge the piece.

[24] Michelangelo was a prolific draftsman, as he was trained in a Florentine workshop at a dynamic time in the art scene, when paper had become readily available in sufficient quantity.

They are both in the British Museum in London, revealing Michelangelo's in depth planning process for the Sistine Chapel ceiling composition, and his serious attention to perspective and shadowing.

[29] 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.

[29] 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.

[31][better source needed] Michelangelo heavily studied the human body and dissected numerous cadavers in his artistic career, and over time became captivated by the male torso.

[31][better source needed] In his treatises on painting and sculpture, Leon Battista Alberti, defined the male figure as a "geometrical and harmonious sum of its parts".

[33] 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.

[34] 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.