Michelangelo's paintings on the Sistine Chapel contain a strong presence of God. The ideas and stories of the Bible are on the surface of the ceiling. All these stories are taken from the book of Genesis, which would not be possible without God. The scenes depicted are placed in a time frame of an earlier world. This period is called ante legem, and is the period before the Mosaic Law. The scenes can be analyzed in numerous ways that depend on the analyzers faith and interpretation of the beginning of time. The chapel contains nine stories divided into three trilogies: The Creation of the World, the Creation of Man, and the Story of Noah. All of these stories have a strong Godly presence, as the viewer sees the creation, progression, and, eventually, fall of man. The idea of God evolves from panel to panel by allowing the onlooker to consider God in three different situations forcing his role to change throughout each. The establishment of the vision of diverse, yet related symbols of biblical foundations presents a sense of the supernatural and divine world. The stories embody separate motifs; but, the piece is expressed as a unified whole with God being the only consistent presence in either idea or visual portrayal.
             The order of the ceiling, according to the book of Genesis, should be read from the "Separation of Light from Darkness" to the "Drunkenness of Noah", if the viewer reads in chronological order. The Creation of the World is the first out of the three trilogies. This focuses on the emergence of God's presence, arising from his creation of the earth and the cosmic environment. "the Separation of Light from Darkness" exemplifies the physicality of God at the beginning of his worldly universe. "And God said, Let there be light, and there was light... and God divided the light from the darkness"1 This story is depicted in this scene, where Michelangelo shows God whirling in a spinning motion. The shading and use of light and ...