ever you go throughout the chapel, it turns
constantly and faces in every direction. So, also, in the next scene,
where He is dividing the Water from the Earth; and both these are
very beautiful figures and refinements of genius such as could be
produced only by the divine hands of Michelagnolo. He then went on,
beyond that scene, to the Creation of Adam, wherein he figured God as
borne by a group of nude Angels of tender age, which appear to be
supporting not one figure only, but the whole weight of the world;
this effect being produced by the venerable majesty of His form and by
the manner of the movement with which He embraces some of the little
Angels with one arm, as if to support Himself, and with the other
extends the right hand towards Adam, a figure of such a kind in its
beauty, in the attitude, and in the outlines, that it appears as if
newly fashioned by the first and supreme Creator rather than by the
brush and design of a mortal man. Beyond this, in another scene, he
made God taking our mother Eve from Adam's side, in which may be seen
those two nude figures, one as it were dead from his being the thrall
of sleep, and the other become alive and filled with animation by the
blessing of God. Very clearly do we see from the brush of this most
gifted craftsman the difference that there is between sleep and
wakefulness, and how firm and stable, speaking humanly, the Divine
Majesty may appear.

Next to this there follows the scene when Adam, at the persuasion of a
figure half woman and half serpent, brings death upon himself and upon
us by the Forbidden Fruit; and there, also, are seen Adam and Eve
driven from Paradise. In the figure of the Angel is shown with
nobility and grandeur the execution of the mandate of a wrathful Lord,
and in the attitude of Adam the sorrow for his sin together with the
fear of death, as likewise in the woman may be seen shame, abasement,
and the desire to implore pardon, as she presses the arms to the
breast, clasps the hands palm to palm, and sinks the neck into the
bosom, and also turns the head towards the Angel, having more fear of
the justice of God than hope in His mercy. Nor is there less beauty in
the story of the sacrifice of Cain and Abel; wherein are some who are
bringing up the wood, some who are bent down and blowing at the fire,
and others who are cutting the throat of the victim; which certainly
is all executed with not less consideration and attention than the
others.