Does art play a role in the evolution of the very idea of God in culture? Michelangelo’s well-known artwork in the Sistine Chapel presents God as creator. The present article analyzes this work, focusing on the part of the Chapel dedicated to the creation of Adam, locating it in its context (its commission and realization), comparing it to other artistic works concerned with the same topic, in order to show the continuities and the (fourfold) discontinuities which are at play here, in order also to assess the reception and impact of this work. Whereas many recent scholars tend to consider Michelangelo as a genius who transformed anything he touched into gold, this article suggests that the triumph of his work, in his own day all the way until today, in which God is presented through two main attributes, namely old age and physical force, is not unrelated to the loss of credibility of the very idea of God in the modern era.