Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel Ceiling

After spending the last few days recovering, I'm feeling much better. As promised, an article about the Sistine Chapel ceiling, painted by Michelango from 1508-1512.

Today the massive fresco that covers the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican in Italy is one of the best known pieces of art in the world, but Michelangelo didn’t want to paint it. Michelangelo preferred sculpting but he couldn’t say no to the Pope. So in 1508 he began his work.

Of course he couldn’t reach the ceiling from the ground, so he attached wooden platforms to the walls to stand on. Each day he had to lay new plaster onto the ceiling to paint on. It must have been unpleasant work because plaster becomes hot as it dries and it smells. Michelangelo worked on the ceiling for 4 years.
The design of the ceiling is shown in the drawing above. (Image from Wikipedia.) The middle strip of the ceiling is divided into nine different paintings, each showing a story from the book of Genesis. Five of the nine are small pictures surrounded by shields and nudes, and the other four are larger pictures without nudes in the corners. These nine pictures can be placed in groups of three panels. The first group shows God creating the earth. This picture shown on the left, God Creating Adam, is from this group. The second group shows the creation of man and woman. The third group is all about Noah, including the great flood.

On either side of the center row of pictures, Michelangelo painted prophets and sibyls, twelve altogether. Each were in some way involved with the coming of Jesus Christ. There are seven men (prophets) and five women (sibyls).

Between the prophets are triangular shaped areas, and over the windows are arches. Onto these areas Michelangelo painted Christ’s ancestors and family.

Finally, in the four corners of the ceiling, Michelangelo painted four more stories from the bible. One shows David defeating Goliath (shown below), a subject Michelangelo had already sculpted.

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