Michelangelo Paints the Ceiling of the Sistine Chapel

Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564), the Florentine sculptor, painter, and architect, was commissioned by Pope Julius II to decorate the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican. He labored on the vast project from 1508 to 1512, working largely without studio assistants on the figures themselves under physically demanding conditions.

The ceiling presents scenes from the Book of Genesis, framed by monumental figures of prophets and sibyls and accompanying nude youths. Its centerpiece, the Creation of Adam, in which God reaches out to give life to the first man, became one of the most recognized images in all of Western art.

Although Michelangelo regarded himself primarily as a sculptor, the Sistine ceiling stands among the supreme achievements of Renaissance painting. Decades later he returned to the chapel to paint the Last Judgment on its altar wall, cementing the space as a monument to his genius.