At the end of June 2020, a strange text went viral on social media, particularly Facebook. Published by an architect from Limeira/SP, it was shared more than 135,000 times and received more than 12,000 reactions


This text dealt with the fresco “Creation of Adam”, a fresco painted by Michelangelo around 1511 at the request of Pope Julius II. The fresco is part of a set of paintings that make up the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, which in turn is located in the Apostolic Palace, the Pope's official residence in the Vatican City-State. On the ceiling, Michelangelo basically represented passages from the Old Testament.


This is what the text said:
When, in 1512, Michelangelo finally completed the fresco on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, which is considered one of the most famous works in the history of art, the cardinals responsible for curating the works stayed for hours watching and admiring the magnificent fresco. . After the analysis, they met with the master of the arts, Michelangelo and, without shame, they shot: REDO IT!

The discontent, obviously, was not with the whole work, but with a detail, apparently unimportant. Michelangelo had conceived the panel of the creation of man with the fingers of God and Adam touching each other. The healers demanded that there be no contact, but that the fingers of both be distant and more distant: that God's finger should always be stretched to the maximum, but that Adam's finger should be with the last phalanges contracted. A simple detail but with a surprising meaning: God is there, but the decision to seek him belongs to man. If you want, stretch your finger, you'll touch it, but if you don't want to, you can go a lifetime without looking for it. The last phalanx of Adam's finger contracted then represents free will. "





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