Michelangelo’s Creation of Adam is painted on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel (Photo: Lucas Schifres/Getty Images)

The “confident” Michelangelo may have painted himself as a god on the ceiling of the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel, an expert claims.

From 1508 to 1512, the Italian artist painted the ceiling frescoes of the Vatican Museums depicting swirling and thundering scenes from the Book of Genesis.

Among them is The Creation of Adam, in which a muscular god stretches out to give birth to an equally muscular Adam, the first human.

But art historian Adriano Marinazz has suggested that one of the Renaissance master’s most enduring works is actually a selfie that dates back more than 500 years.

“Michelangelo saw himself as the messiah of art, so it makes sense,” Marinazzo, curator of the Muscarelle Museum of Art at the College of William and Mary, told The Wall Street Journal.

Marinazzo, an artist himself who published the theory last year, says he got the idea after reading a 1509 poem by Michelangelo.

Could this be some kind of 500 year old “selfie”? (Photo by Lucas Schifres/Getty Images)

VATICAN, VATICAN CITY, MAY 03: A reporter photographs Michelangelo's fresco scheme on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, including the Creation of Adam viewed centrally in the Sistine Chapel, ahead of the reopening of the Vatican Museums, in Vatican City. on May 3, 2021. The reopening follows the third museum closure since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, with stricter rules including booking requirements, punctuality in showing up, protective masks and social distancing. (Photo by Riccardo De Luca/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

Experts say Michelangelo felt “aimless” (Photo: Riccardo De Luca/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

The sonnet, sent to his friend Giovanni da Pistoia of the Florentine Academy, described how nervous he was about painting the Sistine Chapel.

“My thoughts are insane perfidious nonsense,” he wrote, adding, “My image is dead.”

Dangling twenty meters in the air and stretching your neck all day didn’t do much for your body either, Michelangelo wrote.

Michelangelo wrote: “My belly is crushed under my chin, my beard points to the sky, my brain is crushed in a coffin, my chest writhes like a harpy’s.

“My squat crunches in my guts, my poor ass tries to balance, every gesture I make is blind and aimless,” he added.

Michelangelo was already a “confident” man after a jealous rival broke his nose as a teenager, Marinazzo said.

In the end, Michelangelo happily sacrificed his “poor ass” to endure the pain and paint the Sistine Chapel.

Engraved portrait of the Italian sculptor, painter, architect and poet Michelangelo (1475 - 1564). (Photo by Stock Montage/Getty Images)

Michelangelo was “confident”, it said (Image: Stock Montage/Getty Images)

But for Marinazzo, it was a small scribble in the margin of the sonnet that caught his attention.

The scribble shows a tense, hunched figure reaching up to draw a nasty figure on the ceiling.

That was all Marinazzo needed to confirm his suspicions.

“He’s hiding in the ceiling,” he told the Wall Street Journal. “The face is idealized because Michelangelo was unaware of his broken nose.

“But that’s the closest he’s ever come to presenting himself as divine.”

Some scholars believe he may have stumbled upon what is said to be an “intelligent connection”.

However, another critic finds Marinazzo’s theory a bit far-fetched.

Renaissance art historian Paul Barolsky said, “Everyone has theories.

“But you have to try harder.”

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