Consider Michelangelo, who was commissioned by Pope Julius II in the early 1500s to paint Biblical scenes on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Michelangelo’s paintings, like The Creation of Adam, were part of a series of illustrations depicting the stories of Genesis. In The Creation of Adam, Michelangelo illustrated the idea of God reaching out to Adam, the first man. This painting became a way for illiterate Italian peasants to ‘read’ the Word of God, not in print, but in brushstrokes of paint splashed across the ceiling of their own cathedral.