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- The story of the book of Genesis is featured on the ceiling. At the centre of the ceiling, the decoration is nine scenes from the Book of Genesis. One of them is the famous Creation of Adam which many art critics have compared it to Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa.
- The work was commissioned by Pope Julius II. Michelangelo was commissioned by Pope Julius II in 1508. He started by working on a cycle of frescoes on the upper walls and vault of the Sistine Chapel.
- Michelangelo worked backwards on the frescoes. Michelangelo began work at the Sistine Chapel in spring 1508. He began at the west end with the Drunkenness of Noah and the Prophet Zechariah.
- Michelangelo started working on the Sistine Chapel ceiling aged 30. When he was commissioned to paint the Sistine Chapel ceiling, Michelangelo was 30-years old.
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- The Commission
- Design & Technique
- The Story of Genesis
- Reception
The Sistine Chapel in the Vatican Palace complex in Rome was commissioned by Pope Sixtus IV (r. 1474-1481 CE). The building was only completed c. 1481 CE but the development of a massive crack in the ceiling in 1504 CE required a repair job that also offered an opportunity to add yet more artwork to an already impressive art-packed interior. What w...
Julius II and Michelangelo had already joined forces when the artist had been commissioned to produce the Pope's tomb. This project, begun in March 1505 CE, had not been a smooth-running one. Patron and artist had quarrelled over the grandiose design that once included 40 marble statues. Contracts were rewritten several times, the design made less ...
The ceiling is an almost overwhelming assembly of Christian imagery. Along the sides of the ceiling are seven prophets and five sibyls, which alternate. According to the Christian tradition, both these groups foretold the coming of Jesus Christ. The five sibyls are representations of those from Delphi, Cumae, Libya, Persia, and Erythrae. The seven ...
The work was an immediate success with almost everyone who saw it but there were some rumblings of discontent. The main objection was the amount of nudity and particularly the depiction of genitalia in a handful of figures. This did not stop Michelangelo later being commissioned to paint the entirety of one wall of the chapel with his version of th...
- Mark Cartwright
The Sistine Chapel ceiling (Italian: Soffitto della Cappella Sistina), painted in fresco by Michelangelo between 1508 and 1512, is a cornerstone work of High Renaissance art. The Sistine Chapel is the large papal chapel built within the Vatican between 1477 and 1480 by Pope Sixtus IV, for whom the chapel is named.
The Sistine Chapel is a rectangular brick building with six arched windows on each of the two main (or side) walls and a barrel-vaulted ceiling. The chapel’s exterior is drab and unadorned, but its interior walls and ceiling are decorated with frescoes by many Florentine Renaissance masters.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Jul 29, 2024 · Find answers to common questions about Michelangelo's famous paintings on the Sistine Chapel ceiling, including how long it took him to paint them.
Ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. by Christine Zappella. God created the world in seven days, but it took Michelangelo four years to depict it on this remarkable ceiling. Michelangelo, Ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, 1508–12, fresco (Vatican, Rome). Speakers: Dr. Beth Harris and Dr. Steven Zucker.
Aug 7, 2024 · The complex and unusual iconography of the Sistine ceiling has been explained by some scholars as a Neoplatonic interpretation of the Bible, representing the essential phases of the spiritual development of humankind seen through a very dramatic relationship between humans and God.