Creation of Adam

This is perhaps the Sistine Chapel’s most celebrated composition which is repeatedly copied and emulated, even in such unlikely media as, for example, the Simpsons television series. The engraving by Domenico Cunego was published as part of the Schola Italica Picturae. This album was a sort of overview of the chefs-d’oeuvre of Italian painting, which was prepared for publication in 1773 by Gavin Hamilton, a Scottish artist living in Rome. A few years later, the printing plates were purchased by Italian printmaker Giovanni Battista Piranesi.