Which hand does God extend to Adam in The Creation of Adam?

Which hand does God extend to Adam in The Creation of Adam? God extends his right hand.

Michelangelo’s fresco shows God reaching across the gap toward Adam with his right arm and index finger. Adam’s left arm mirrors the gesture, creating the painting’s famous near-touch between divine and human figures. The image illustrates the Genesis account in which God gives life to the first man.

The fingers do not actually touch: a small space separates them. Many viewers read that gap as a symbol of humanity’s dependence on God, or of the distance between divine perfection and human nature. Adam is shown as physically formed but still inert, so the approaching gesture represents the transfer of life rather than the making of a body from nothing.

The fresco was painted on the Sistine Chapel ceiling between 1508 and 1512. A related detail often missed is that the figure beneath God’s arm is traditionally interpreted as Eve, though that identification remains debated among scholars.