It might here be urged that he chose to symbolise the fecundity of her who was destined to be the mother of the human race.

But if this was his meaning, why did he not make Adam a corresponding symbol of fatherhood?
Adam is an adolescent man, colossal in proportions, but beardless, hairless; the attributes of sex in him are developed, but not matured by use.

The Night, for whom no symbolism of maternity was needed, is a woman who has passed through many pregnancies.

Those deeply delved wrinkles on the vast and flaccid abdomen sufficiently indicate this.

Yet when we turn to Michelangelo's sonnets on Night, we find that he habitually thought of her as a mysterious and shadowy being, whose influence, though potent for the soul, disappeared before the frailest of all creatures bearing light.