The Michelangelo Code

Did Michelangelo embed an image of a human brain stem in God’s throat in a panel of his Sistine Chapel fresco?

Did Michelangelo embed an image of a human brain stem in God’s throat in a panel of his Sistine Chapel fresco? Michelangelo studied human anatomy by dissecting cadavers when he was a young man, which informed his powerful depictions of the human and the divine. But one panel of his Sistine Chapel frescoes contains an oddly lit and awkward image of God’s neck and head. Here, God’s beard is foreshortened and appears to roll up along the sides of his jaw, and his bulbous neck has prompted speculation that Michelangelo intended to portray God with goiter, or abnormally enlarged thyroid gland. 

Two researchers—one a neurosurgeon, the other a medical illustrator—writing in the May issue of the journal Neurosurgery have another theory. In this panel, which portrays the Separation of Light from Darkness, from the Book of Genesis, Michelangelo embedded a ventral view of the brainstem, they wrote. Using a digital analysis, they found a close correspondence between the shadows outlining the features of God’s neck and a photograph of a model of this section of the brain, which connects the spinal cord. In a 1990 article, a gynecologist identified an outline of the human brain in The Creation of Adam.