So naturalistic are they that Michael Angelo must have posed a model and made drawings in the chapel itself, perhaps even on the scaffolding, and worked straight away.

He appears to have used only three models for this purpose.

The Athletes drawn from the same model can easily be distinguished; they are actual portraits.

One was the man who sat for the Adam, and was of a noble proportion with a small head, a beautiful brow, and a solemn mouth.

His hair was wavy and of a wispy character; he had broad shoulders; his extremities were small, the thighs large and well developed, showing the individual muscles by large forms with flat planes.