A real Michelangelo moment: Life apes art as orangutan is captured reaching out for a human hand in mesmerising copy of the masterpiece
- Julia Wimmerlin, 42, snapped the images at an Indonesian national park
- Michelangelo’s fresco-The Creation of Adam-adorns the Sistine Chapel’s ceiling
- It depicts Genesis’ creation narrative of the forming of the first human being
- The moment was created when the orangutan reached out to the boat for food
These mesmerising pictures show a majestic orangutan recreating one of the most famous scenes in world art.
Taken by photographer Julia Wimmerlin, 42, the images show the orangutan with its arms outstretched towards a passerby, a mirror image of the famous scene in the Vatican’s Sistine chapel of god creating Adam.
Another image shows it gazing in contemplation at a pool of water, its hand within touching distance of the hand of a passing boat captain at Tanjung Puting National Park, Indonesia.
This orangutan, photographed in Tanjung Puting National Park, Indonesia, outstretched its arm to a passerby, recreating one of the most famous scenes in the art world
A mirror image of the famous scene at the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel of God creating Adam, the orangutan’s outstretched arm allows its index finger to touch the hand of the skipper passing by
The Creation of Adam was painted by Italian master Michelangelo in the 16th century on to the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. It depicts the biblical creation of Adam, the first man, from the book of Genesis
Julia said: ‘To me these photos are so human in their true love and care, multitasking and resourcefulness. They’re not only beautiful, they are very true in the emotions they convey.
‘The moment I saw the orangutan stretching it’s hand to reach the hand of a boat skipper it gave me chills since it looked like a mix of Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel and an alien hand.
‘We stopped and after a while she came out to the river bank. She was first quite suspicious of us but little by little she came out and she started drinking.
The photographer, Julia Wimmerlin, 42, said that the series of snaps show a humanity through their ‘love and care’ and that they convey ‘true emotion’
Wimmerlin added that the orangutan was quite suspicious of the party at first but eventually came out to the river bank and started drinking from the water
It was the remnants of the group’s breakfast that caused her to reach towards the boat. Wimmerlin said that the orangutan began to consider getting in the vessel towards the end
‘Attracted by the remnants of our breakfast she decided to reach the boat.
‘We could observe the whole process from her not being sure to trying to get into the water into reaching to the boat. At this moment we started throwing some of this food into water.
‘At the end when she was considering getting into the boat the boat skipper put his hand with food into the opposite direction.
‘The photos with the hands are the result of that.’
Orangutans are the most intelligent non-human primates, having the ability to use tools and problem solve. It is also believed that they can communicate with each other linguistically
Folk tales from Indonesia say that it is unlucky to look in the face of an orangutan and others have recorded experiences of humans being kidnapped by the creatures