Apparently Dr. Frank Lynn Meshberger hypothesizes the “Creation of Man” mural painted on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel actually depicts god bestowing intellect on man, arguing that Adam’s eyes are open in the painting, god and the angels take on the distinct shape of a brain, and that Michelangelo was well aware of human anatomy from the many cadavers he dissected in his study of the human form for his art.

Can you see the brain in this painting?

Creation of Man Credit: Michelangelo

There are lots of drawings from anatomy texts with the brain in the painting highlighted in this article. A discussion on physicsforums turned up this insightful comment:

Upon reading the title and seeing the painting, I can definitely see the “brain” in the image. Of course this is coming from a neuroscientist who also knows that the brain “likes” to make associations between recognizable images and the abstract. But I have seen a lot of brain in my time and that shape is pretty “brainy”.

This is wayyyyyy cooler than anything found in The DaVinci Code.