View source for Sistine Chapel ceiling

{{Short description|Cycle of frescoes by Michelangelo}}
{{For|a collection of images|Gallery of Sistine Chapel ceiling}}
{{Use Oxford spelling|date=January 2024}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2024}}
{{Infobox artwork
|title=Sistine Chapel ceiling
|italic title=no
|image_file=Sistine Chapel ceiling 02 (brightened).jpg
|caption=The interior of the [[Sistine Chapel]] showing the ceiling in relation to the other frescoes. Michelangelo's ''[[The Creation of Adam]]'' is near the top of the photo.
|image_upright=1
|artist=[[Michelangelo]]
|city=[[Vatican City]]
|museum=[[Sistine Chapel]], part of [[Vatican Museums]]
|coordinates={{coord|41|54|11|N|12|27|16|E|region:VA|display=it}}
|mapframe-frame-width=270
|mapframe=yes
|mapframe-caption=Click on the map for a fullscreen view
|mapframe-zoom=14
|mapframe-marker=monument
|mapframe-wikidata=yes
|followed_by=[[The Last Judgment (Michelangelo)|The Last Judgment]]
}}

The '''Sistine Chapel ceiling''' ({{langx|it|Soffitto della Cappella Sistina}}), painted in [[fresco]] by [[Michelangelo]] between 1508 and 1512,<ref name=":6">{{Cite book |last=Marinazzo |first=Adriano |url=https://www.academia.edu/128816224 |title=Michelangelo: The Genesis of the Sistine |date=2025 |publisher=Mandragora |isbn=9788874617159}}</ref> is a cornerstone work of [[High Renaissance]] [[Renaissance art|art]].

The [[Sistine Chapel]] is the large papal chapel built within the [[Vatican City|Vatican]] between 1477 and 1480 by [[Pope Sixtus IV]], for whom the chapel is named. The ceiling was painted at the commission of [[Pope Julius II]].

The ceiling's various painted elements form part of a larger scheme of decoration within the chapel. Prior to Michelangelo's contribution, the walls were painted by several leading artists of the late 15th century including [[Sandro Botticelli]], [[Domenico Ghirlandaio]], and [[Pietro Perugino]]. After the ceiling was painted, [[Raphael]] created [[Raphael Cartoons|a&nbsp;set of large tapestries]] (1515–1516) to cover the lower portion of the wall. Michelangelo returned to the chapel to create ''[[The Last Judgment (Michelangelo)|The Last Judgment]]'', a large wall fresco situated behind the altar. The chapel's decoration illustrates much of the doctrine of the [[Catholic Church]], serving as the setting for [[papal conclave]]s and many other important services.{{sfn|Shearman|1986|pp=22–36, 38–87}}{{sfn|O'Malley|1986|pp=92–148}}

Central to the ceiling decoration are nine scenes from the [[Book of Genesis]], including ''[[The Creation of Adam]]''.<ref name=":5">{{Cite journal |last=Marinazzo |first=Adriano |date=2022 |title=Michelangelo as the Creator. The self-portrait of the Buonarroti Archive, XIII, 111 r |url=https://www.academia.edu/102248857 |journal=Critica d'Arte |issue=13–14 |pages=99–107}}</ref> The complex design includes several sets of figures, some clothed and some [[Nude (art)|nude]], allowing Michelangelo to demonstrate his skill in depicting the human figure in a variety of poses. The ceiling was immediately well-received and imitated by other artists, continuing to the present. It has been [[Restoration of the Sistine Chapel frescoes|restored several times]], most recently from 1980 to 1994.

== Context and creation ==

The walls of the [[Sistine Chapel]] had been decorated 20 years before [[Michelangelo]]'s work on the ceiling. Following this, [[Raphael]] designed [[Raphael Cartoons|a&nbsp;set of tapestries]] (1515–1516) to cover the lowest of three levels;<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/t/raphael-cartoons/ |title=The Raphael Cartoons |work=Victoria and Albert Museum |access-date=2022-06-17 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110515005649/http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/t/raphael-cartoons/ |archive-date=2011-05-15}}</ref> the surviving tapestries are still hung on special occasions. The middle level contains a complex scheme of [[fresco]]es illustrating the ''[[Life of Christ in art|Life of Christ]]'' on the right side and the ''Life of [[Moses]]'' on the left side. It was carried out by some of the most renowned [[Renaissance art|Renaissance]] painters: [[Sandro Botticelli]], [[Domenico Ghirlandaio]], [[Pietro Perugino]], [[Pinturicchio]], [[Luca Signorelli]], and [[Cosimo Rosselli]].{{sfn|Shearman|1986|pp=45–47}} The upper level of the walls contains the windows, between which are painted pairs of [[Illusionism (art)|illusionistic]] niches with representations of the first 32 popes.<ref>Partridge, 1996, p.&nbsp;10.</ref>

[[File:Cappella sistina, ricostruzione dell'interno prima degli interventi di Michelangelo, stampa del XIX secolo.jpg|thumb|The ceiling as it may have looked before Michelangelo painted it]]

The original ceiling painting was by [[Pier Matteo d'Amelia]], and had depicted stars over a blue background{{sfn|Paris|2009|p=86}} like the ceiling of the [[Arena Chapel]] decorated by [[Giotto]] at [[Padua]].{{sfn|Shearman|1986|pp=29–30}} For six months in 1504, a diagonal crack in the chapel's [[Vault (architecture)|vault]] had made the chapel unusable, and [[Pope Julius II]] (Giuliano della Rovere) had the damaged painting removed by Piero Roselli, a friend of Michelangelo.{{sfn|Paris|2009|p=86}}
Julius II was a "warrior pope"<ref>{{cite book|last= Shaw|first=Christine|title=Julius II: The Warrior Pope|url=https://archive.org/details/juliusiiwarriorp00shaw |url-access= registration| year=1996 | publisher=Blackwell | location=Oxford | isbn=978-0-631-20282-0}}</ref> who in his papacy undertook an aggressive campaign for political control to unite and empower Italy under the leadership of the [[Catholic Church]]. He invested in symbolism to display his temporal power, such as his procession, in which he (in the [[Classical antiquity|Classical]] manner) rode a chariot through a triumphal arch after one of his many military victories. Julius II's project to rebuild [[St. Peter's Basilica]] would distinguish it as the most potent symbol of the source of papal power;<ref>Partridge 1996, p.&nbsp;15.</ref> he ultimately demolished and replaced [[Old St. Peter's Basilica|the original basilica]] with a grander one intended to house [[Tomb of Pope Julius II|his own tomb]].<ref>{{Cite web|last=Bambach|first=Carmen C.|date=2014|title=Michelangelo Buonarroti {{!}} Design for the Tomb of Pope Julius II della Rovere|url=https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/334655|access-date=2021-08-13|website=The Metropolitan Museum of Art}}</ref> The pope summoned Michelangelo to Rome in early 1505 and commissioned him to design his tomb, forcing the artist to leave [[Florence]] with his planned [[Battle of Cascina (Michelangelo)|''Battle of Cascina'']] painting unfinished.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|url=http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780199532940.001.0001/acref-9780199532940|title=The Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2009|isbn=978-0-19-953294-0|editor-last=Chilvers|editor-first=Ian|edition=4th|location=Online|language=en|chapter=Michelangelo (Michelangelo Buonarroti)|doi=10.1093/acref/9780199532940.001.0001}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite book|url=http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780198601753.001.0001/acref-9780198601753|title=The Oxford Dictionary of the Renaissance|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2005|isbn=978-0-19-860175-3|editor-last=Campbell|editor-first=Gordon|edition=Online|language=en|chapter=Michelangelo Buonarroti or Michelagnolo Buonarroti|doi=10.1093/acref/9780198601753.001.0001}}</ref><ref name=":2">{{Cite book|last1=Osborne|first1=Harold|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/oxfordcompaniont0000unse_r1z5/page/475/|pages=474–476|title=The Oxford Companion to Western Art|last2=Brigstocke|first2=Hugh|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2001|isbn=0-19-866203-3|editor-last=Brigstocke|editor-first=Hugh|edition=1st|language=en|chapter=Michelangelo Buonarroti|doi=10.1093/acref/9780198662037.001.0001}}</ref> By this time, Michelangelo was established as an artist;{{efn|[[Walter Pater]] writes, "Michelangelo was now thirty years old, and his reputation was established. Three great works fill the remainder of his life{{snd}}three works often interrupted, carried on through a thousand hesitations, a thousand disappointments, quarrels with his patrons, quarrels with his family, quarrels perhaps most of all with himself{{snd}}the Sistine Chapel, the Mausoleum of Julius the Second, and the [[San Lorenzo, Florence#New Sacristy|Sacristy of San Lorenzo]]".<ref name=Pater />}} both he and Julius II had hot tempers and soon argued.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2" /> On 17 April 1506, Michelangelo left Rome in secret for Florence, remaining there until the Florentine government pressed him to return to the pope.<ref name=":2" />

[[File:Tomb of Pope Julius II - Adriano Marinazzo.jpg|thumb|Hypothetical reconstruction of the first project for the tomb of Julius II (1505) according to an interpretation by Adriano Marinazzo (2018)<ref name=":10">{{Cite journal|last=Marinazzo|first=Adriano|date=2018|title=La Tomba di Giulio II e l'architettura dipinta della volta della Sistina: Quell'idea di sepoltura che mai vide la luce|url=https://www.academia.edu/38502373|journal=Art e Dossier|volume=357|pages=46–51|issn=0394-0179}}</ref>]]
[[File:Adriano Marinazzo Michelangelo first drawing Sistine Ceiling.jpg|thumb|Michelangelo's structural sketch (Archivio Buonarroti, XIII, 175v) overlaid on the Chapel ceiling<ref name=":9">{{Cite journal |last=Marinazzo |first=Adriano |date=2013 |title=Ipotesi su un disegno michelangiolesco del foglio XIII, 175v, dell'Archivio Buonarroti |url=https://www.academia.edu/19527167 |journal=Commentari d'arte |volume=52–53 |pages=108–110}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|last=Crow|first=Kelly|date=2014-01-11|title=Found? Michelangelo's Sistine Sketch|language=en-US|work=[[The Wall Street Journal]]|url=https://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303433304579306952380623062.html|access-date=2021-03-29|issn=0099-9660}}</ref>]]

In 1506, the same year the foundation stone was laid for the new St. Peter's,<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Fletcher|first1=Banister|url=https://archive.org/details/historyofarchite00flet/page/471/mode/2up|title=A History of Architecture on the Comparative Method|last2=Fletcher|first2=Banister F.|publisher=Batsford|year=1905|location=London|pages=471|author-link=Banister Fletcher (senior)|author-link2=Banister Fletcher (junior)}}</ref>{{efn|This engaged Julius II's attention and by February 1513, when he died, little work had been done on his tomb.<ref name=":3">{{Cite book|url=http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780198604761.001.0001/acref-9780198604761|title=The Oxford Dictionary of Art|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2004|isbn=978-0-19-860476-1|editor-last=Chilvers|editor-first=Ian|edition=3|location=Online|language=en|chapter=Michelangelo (Michelangelo Buonarroti)|doi=10.1093/acref/9780198604761.001.0001}}</ref><ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /> It had been a grand commission, with 40 large figures to be carved.<ref name=":1" /> Its original design was never begun.<ref name=":2" /> Ultimately Michelangelo finished only three figures for the completed monument of 1545, reduced successively to a series of more modest designs, and built finally in the [[San Pietro in Vincoli|Church of San Pietro ''in Vincoli'']], including the {{Circa|1515}} statue of [[Moses (Michelangelo)|''Moses'']].<ref name=":3" /><ref name=":1" /><ref name=":0" /> The tomb commission lasted decades, and Michelangelo lamented, "I have wasted all my youth chained to this tomb."<ref name=":3" /><ref name=":0" /> Michelangelo's pupil and biographer [[Ascanio Condivi]] described the affair as the "Tragedy of the Tomb".<ref name=":2" />}} Julius II conceived a programme to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.<ref name="Gold">{{cite book|last=Goldscheider|first=Ludwig|author-link=Ludwig Goldscheider|edition=6th|year=1996|orig-year=1953|title=Michelangelo: Paintings, Sculpture, Architecture|publisher=[[Phaidon Press|Phaidon]]|url=https://archive.org/details/michelangelopain0000gold/page/n16/|isbn=978-0-7148-3296-8|pages=16–20}}</ref> It is probable that, because the chapel was the site of regular meetings and Masses of an elite body of officials known as the [[Papal court#Papal Chapel|Papal Chapel]] (who would observe the decorations and interpret their theological and temporal significance), it was Julius II's intention and expectation that the [[iconography]] of the ceiling was to be read with many layers of meaning.<ref>Partridge, 1996, p.&nbsp;11.</ref>
The scheme proposed by the pope was for twelve large figures of the [[Apostles in the New Testament|Apostles]] to occupy the [[spandrel]]s.{{sfn|Pfisterer|2018|pp=53–56}}{{sfn|O'Malley|1986|p=104}} Michelangelo negotiated for a grander, much more complex scheme and was finally permitted, in his own words, "to do as I liked".<ref>Partridge 1996, p.&nbsp;13.</ref>{{efn|It is unknown and the subject of speculation among art historians whether Michelangelo was really able to paint the ceiling completely as he wished.{{sfn|O'Malley|1986|p=104}}}} It has been suggested that [[Augustinian friar]] and [[cardinal (Catholic Church)|cardinal]] [[Giles of Viterbo]] could have influenced the ceiling's theological layout.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Baldwin |first=Robert |date=1988 |title=Michelangelo, Sistine Chapel, Vatican, Rome, 1508-12 |url=https://resources.saylor.org/wwwresources/archived/site/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/ARTH206-Baldwin-Michelangelos-Sistine-Chapel.pdf |access-date=2022-03-02 |website=[[Saylor Academy]] |page=2}}</ref> Many writers consider that Michelangelo had the intellect, the biblical knowledge, and the powers of invention to have devised the scheme himself. This is supported by Michelangelo's biographer [[Ascanio Condivi]]'s statement that the artist read and reread the [[Old Testament]] while he was painting the ceiling, drawing his inspiration from the words of the scripture, rather than from the established traditions of sacral art.{{sfn|Graham-Dixon|2008|pp=181ff}}

On 10 May 1506, Piero Roselli wrote to Michelangelo on behalf of the pope.{{sfn|Paris|2009|p=84}} In this letter, Roselli mentions that papal court architect [[Donato Bramante]] doubted that Michelangelo could take on such a large fresco project, as he had limited experience in the medium.{{sfn|Paris|2009|p=84}}{{efn|Seeming to contradict Roselli's letter, Ascanio Condivi theorized that Bramante put Michelangelo's name forward for the project in a scheme to humiliate him, as he was more skilled as a sculptor.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Fedi|first=Laura|date=2018-12-24|title=Michelangelo's Sistine splendor, story of a Renaissance icon|url=https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/magazine/2018/11-12/michelangelo-renaissance-art-sistine-chapel/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200316065422/https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/magazine/2018/11-12/michelangelo-renaissance-art-sistine-chapel/|url-status=dead|archive-date=16 March 2020|access-date=2020-09-25|website=[[National Geographic]]|language=en}}</ref>{{sfn|Paris|2009|p=84}}}} According to Bramante, Michelangelo stated his refusal.{{sfn|Hartt|1964|pp=58–59}} In November 1506 Michelangelo went to [[Bologna]], where he received a commission from the pope to construct a colossal bronze statue of him conquering the Bolognese.<ref name=":2" />{{efn|The Bolognese destroyed the bronze in 1511.<ref name=":2" />}} After he completed this in early 1508, Michelangelo returned to Rome expecting to resume work on the papal tomb, but this had been quietly set aside.<ref name=":10" />{{Efn|The tomb project, which Michelangelo would return to, was reinvigorated by [[Della Rovere|Julius&nbsp;II's family]] after the pope's 1513 death.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2" />}}
Michelangelo was instead commissioned for a cycle of frescoes on the vault and upper walls of the Sistine Chapel.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2" /> Michelangelo, who was not primarily a painter but a sculptor, was reluctant to take on the work; he suggested that his young rival Raphael take it on instead.{{sfn|Paris|2009|pp=69–70, 84}}{{sfn|Vasari|1991|p=439}} The pope was persistent; according to [[Giorgio Vasari]], he was provoked by Bramante to insist that Michelangelo take on the project, leaving him little choice but to accept.{{sfn|Vasari|1991|p=439}} The contract was signed on 8 May 1508, with a promised fee of 3,000 [[ducat]]s{{sfn|Paris|2009|p=84}} (approximately US$600,000 in gold in 2021). At the pope's behest, Bramante built the initial [[scaffolding]], hung via ropes from holes in the ceiling. This method displeased Michelangelo as it would force him to paint around the holes, and he had freestanding scaffolding constructed instead.{{sfn|Vasari|1991|p=439}}{{sfn|Condivi|1999|pp=99, 101}} This was built by Piero Roselli, who subsequently roughcasted the ceiling.{{sfn|Paris|2009|p=86}} Michelangelo initially sought to engage assistants who were more well-versed in fresco-painting, but he was unable to find suitable candidates and decided to paint the whole ceiling alone.{{sfn|Vasari|1991|p=440}} Among the Florentine artists whom Michelangelo brought to Rome in the hope of assisting in the fresco, Vasari names [[Francesco Granacci]], [[Giuliano Bugiardini]], Jacopo di Sandro, [[Jacopo Torni|l'Indaco the Elder]], [[Agnolo di Domenico del Mazziere|Agnolo di Domenico]], and [[Bastiano da Sangallo|Aristotile]].{{sfn|Vasari|1991|p=440}}

Michelangelo soon began his work, starting at the west end with the [https://www.michelangelo.org/drunkenness-of-noah.jsp ''Drunkenness of Noah''] and the [https://www.michelangelo.org/zacharias.jsp ''Prophet Zechariah''] and working backwards through the narrative to the ''Creation of Eve'', in the vault's fifth [[Bay (architecture)|bay]], finished in September 1510.<ref name=":2" /> The first half of the ceiling was unveiled with a preliminary showing on 14 August 1511<ref name="Gold" /> and an official viewing the next day.<ref name=":2" /> A long hiatus in painting occurred as new scaffolding was made ready.<ref name=":2" /> The second half of the ceiling's frescoes were done swiftly, and the finished work was revealed on 31 October 1512, [[Halloween|All Hallows' Eve]],<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":1" /> being shown to the public by the next day, [[All Saints' Day]].{{Sfn|Vasari|1991|p=442}} Michelangelo's final scheme for the ceiling includes over 300 figures.{{sfn|Gardner|1970|p=469}}{{Efn|By one count, there are 343 figures.<ref>{{Cite book|date=1950|editor-last=Zara|editor-first=Louis|title=Masterpieces (The Home Collection of Great Art), Volume&nbsp;I | location=New York |publisher=[[Ziff-Davis]]}} Inside back cover.</ref>}}
Vasari states that "When the chapel was uncovered, people from everywhere [rushed] to see it, and the sight of it alone was sufficient to leave them amazed and speechless."{{Sfn|Vasari|1991|p=450}} At the age of 37, Michelangelo's reputation rose such that he was called ''il divino'',<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2" /> and he was henceforth regarded as the greatest artist of his time, who had elevated the status of the arts themselves, a recognition that lasted the rest of his long life.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":2" /><ref name=":3" /> The ceiling was immediately considered one of the greatest masterpieces of all time, a distinction which continues to endure.<ref name=":0" />

=== Method ===

Michelangelo probably began working on the plans and sketches for the design from April 1508.{{sfn|Pfisterer|2018|pp=47–52}} The preparatory work on the ceiling was complete in late July the same year and on 4 February 1510, [[Francesco Albertini]] recorded that Michelangelo had "decorated the upper, arched part with very beautiful pictures and gold".{{sfn|Pfisterer|2018|pp=47–52}} The main design was largely finished in August 1510, as Michelangelo's texts suggest.{{sfn|Pfisterer|2018|pp=47–52}} From September 1510 until February, June, or September 1511, Michelangelo did no work on the ceiling on account of a dispute over payments for work done; in August 1510 the pope left Rome for the Papal States' campaign to reconquer Bologna and despite two visits there by Michelangelo, resolution only came months after the pope's return to Rome in June 1511. On 14 August 1511, Julius held a papal mass in the chapel and saw the progress of the work so far for the first time.{{sfn|Pfisterer|2018|pp=47–52}} This was the vigil for [[Assumption Day]] on 15 August, the Sistine Chapel's patronal feast.{{sfn|Pfisterer|2018|pp=47–52}} The whole design was revealed to visitors on 31 October 1512 with a formal papal mass the following day, the feast of All Saints.<ref name=":7">{{Cite book|last=Thompson|first=Bard|url=https://archive.org/details/humanistsreforme0000thom|url-access=registration|title=Humanists and Reformers: A History of the Renaissance and Reformation|publisher=Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing|year=1996|isbn=978-0-8028-6348-5|location=Grand Rapids, Michigan|pages=[https://archive.org/details/humanistsreforme0000thom/page/266 266]–267|language=en}}</ref> Clerical use of the chapel continued throughout, exempting when the work on the scaffolding necessitated its closure, and disruption to the rites was minimized by beginning the work at the west end, furthest from the liturgical centre around the altar at the east wall.{{sfn|Pfisterer|2018|pp=47–52}} Debate exists on what sequence the parts of the ceiling were painted in and over how the scaffold that allowed the artists to reach the ceiling was arranged. There are two main proposals.

[[File:Achim detail.jpg|thumb|left|The mark of the scaffolding used for painting the ceiling is evident on the lower right of this [[lunette]]]]

The majority theory is that the ceiling's main frescoes were applied and painted in phases, with the scaffolding each time dismantled and moved to another part of the room, beginning at the chapel's west end.<ref name=":7" /> The first phase, including the central life of [[Noah]], was completed in September 1509 and the scaffolding removed; only then were the scenes visible from the floor level.<ref name=":7" /> The next phase, in the middle of the chapel, completed the ''Creation of Eve'' and the ''Fall and Expulsion from Paradise''. The ''Cumaean Sibyl'' and ''Ezekiel'' were also painted in this phase.<ref name=":7" /> Michelangelo painted the figures at a larger scale than in the previous section; this is attributed to the artist's ability to effectively judge the foreshortening and composition from ground level for the first time.<ref name=":7" /> The figures of the third phase, at the east end, were at still grander scale than the second; ''[[The Creation of Adam]]''<ref name=":5" /> and the other ''Creation'' panels were finished at this stage, which took place in 1511.<ref name=":7" /> The lunettes above the windows were painted last, using a small movable scaffold.<ref name=":7" /> In this scheme, proposed by [[Johannes Wilde]], the vault's first and second registers, above and below the fictive architectural cornice, were painted together in stages as the scaffolding moved eastwards, with a stylistic and chronological break westwards and eastwards of the ''Creation of Eve''.{{sfn|Pfisterer|2018|pp=47–52}} After the central vault the main scaffold was replaced by a smaller contraption that allowed the painting of the lunettes, window vaults, and spandrels.<ref name=":7" /> This view supplanted an older view that the central vault formed the first part of the work and was completed before work began on the other parts of Michelangelo's plan.{{sfn|Pfisterer|2018|pp=47–52}}

Another theory is that the scaffolding must have spanned the entire chapel for years at a time.{{sfn|Pfisterer|2018|pp=47–52}} To remove the existing decoration of the ceiling, the entire area had to be accessible for workmen to chisel away the starry-sky fresco before any new work was done.{{sfn|Pfisterer|2018|pp=47–52}} On 10 June 1508, the cardinals complained of the intolerable dust and noise generated by the work; by 27 July 1508, the process was complete and the corner spandrels of the chapel had been converted into the doubled-spandrel triangular [[pendentive]]s of the finished design.{{sfn|Pfisterer|2018|pp=47–52}} Then the frame of the new designs had to be marked out on the surface when frescoeing began; this too demanded access to the whole ceiling.{{sfn|Pfisterer|2018|pp=47–52}} This thesis is supported by the discovery during [[Restoration of the Sistine Chapel frescoes|the modern restoration]] of the exact numbers of the ''giornate'' employed in the frescoes; if the ceiling was painted in two stages, the first spanning two years and extending to the ''Creation of Eve'' and the second lasting just one year, then Michelangelo would have to have painted 270 ''giornate'' in the yearlong second phase, compared with 300 painted in the first two years, which is scarcely possible.{{sfn|Pfisterer|2018|pp=47–52}} By contrast, if the ceiling's first register{{Snd}}with the nine scenes on rectangular fields, the medallions, and the ''ignudi''{{Snd}}was painted in the first two years, and in the second phase, Michelangelo painted only their border in the second register with the ''Prophets'' and ''Sibyls'', then the ''giornate'' finished in each year are divided almost equally.{{sfn|Pfisterer|2018|pp=47–52}} [[Ulrich Pfisterer (art historian)|Ulrich Pfisterer]], advancing this theory, interprets Albertini's remark on "the upper, arched part with very beautiful pictures and gold" in February 1510 as referring only to the upper part of the vault{{Snd}}the first register with its nine picture fields, its ''gnudi,'' and its medallions embellished with gold{{Snd}}and not to the vault as a whole since the fictive architectural [[Attic style|attic]] with its prophets and prophetesses were yet to be started.{{sfn|Pfisterer|2018|pp=47–52}}

The scaffolding needed to protect the chapel's existing wall frescoes and other decorations from falling debris and allow the religious services to continue below, but also to allow in air and some light from the windows below.{{sfn|Pfisterer|2018|pp=47–52}} The chapel's cornice, running around the room below the lunettes at the springing of the window arches themselves, supported the structure's oblique beams, while the carrying beams were set into the wall above the cornice using [[putlog hole]]s.{{sfn|Pfisterer|2018|pp=47–52}} This open structure supported [[Catwalk (theater)|catwalks]] and the movable working platform itself, whose likely stepped design followed the contour of the vault. Beneath was a false ceiling that protected the chapel.{{sfn|Pfisterer|2018|pp=47–52}} Though some sunlight would have entered the workspace between the ceiling and the scaffolding, artificial light would have been required for painting, candlelight possibly influencing the appearance of the vivid colors used.{{sfn|Pfisterer|2018|pp=47–52}}

Restoration overseer Fabrizio Mancinelli speculates that Michelangelo may have only installed scaffolding platforms in one half of the room at a time to cut the cost of timber and to allow light to pass through the uncovered windows.{{sfn|Mancinelli|1986|pp=229–230}} The areas of the wall covered by the scaffolding still appear as unpainted areas at the base of the lunettes.{{sfn|Mancinelli|1986|p=236}}

[[File:Ignudo 02 detail.jpg|thumb|The evidence of the plaster laid for a day's work can be seen around the head and arm of this ''ignudo''.]]

The entire ceiling is a fresco, which is an ancient method for painting [[mural]]s that relies upon a chemical reaction between damp lime plaster and water-based pigments to permanently fuse the work into the wall.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.artsy.net/gene/fresco |title=Fresco {{!}} Artsy |website=[[Artsy (website)|Artsy]] |access-date=30 April 2019}}</ref> Michelangelo had been an apprentice in the workshop of Domenico Ghirlandaio, one of the most competent and prolific of Florentine fresco painters, at the time that the latter was employed on a fresco cycle at [[Santa Maria Novella]] and whose work was represented on the walls of the Sistine Chapel.<ref>{{cite book|last=Goldscheider|first=Ludwig|year=1966|orig-date=1951|title=Michelangelo: Drawings|url=https://archive.org/details/michelangelodraw0000unse/page/13/|publisher=Phaidon|page=13}}</ref>{{sfn|Shearman|1986|p=45}} At the outset, the plaster, [[wikt:intonaco|''intonaco'']], began to grow [[mildew]] or [[mould]] because it was too wet.{{sfn|Condivi|1999|p=57}} When Michelangelo despaired of continuing, the pope sent [[Giuliano da Sangallo]], who explained how to remove the fungus.{{sfn|Vasari|1991|p=441}}
Because Michelangelo was painting ''alfresco'', the plaster was laid in a new section every day, called a ''[[giornata]]''. At the beginning of each session, the edges would be scraped away and a new area laid down.{{sfn|Mancinelli|1986}}

The work commenced at the end of the building furthest from the altar with the last chronological part of the narrative and progressed towards the altar with the scenes of the Creation.{{sfn|Bartz|König|2013|p=54}} The first three scenes, from ''The Drunkenness of Noah'', contain crowded compositions of smaller figures than other panels, evidently, because Michelangelo misjudged the ceiling's size.{{sfn|Gardner|1970|p=470}} Also painted in the early stages was the ''Slaying of Goliath''.<ref>{{cite book |last=Ramsden |first=E. H. |title=Michelangelo (The Great Artists: A library of their lives, times and paintings) |year=1978 |orig-year=1963 |publisher=Funk & Wagnalls|location=New York |page=xiii}}</ref> After painting the ''Creation of Eve'' adjacent to the marble screen which divided the chapel,{{efn|It now stands further from the altar.<ref name=great />}} Michelangelo paused in his work to move the scaffolding to the other side. After having seen his completed work so far, he returned to work with the ''Temptation and Fall'', followed by the ''Creation of Adam''.<ref name="great">{{cite book |last=Ramsden |first=E. H. |title=Michelangelo (The Great Artists: A library of their lives, times and paintings |year=1978 |orig-year=1963 |publisher=Funk & Wagnalls|location=New York |page=3}}</ref><ref name="gardners9th" /> As the scale of the work got larger, Michelangelo's style became broader; the final narrative scene of God in the act of creation was painted in a single day.{{sfn|Bartz|König|2013|p=55}}

According to Vasari, the ceiling was unveiled before it could be reworked with ''[[a&nbsp;secco]]'' and [[gold leaf|gold]] to give it "a finer appearance" as had been done with the chapel's wall frescoes. Both Michelangelo and Pope Julius II wanted these details to be added, but this never took place, in part because Michelangelo did not want to rebuild the scaffolding; he also argued that "in those days men did not wear gold, and those who are painted ... were holy men who despised wealth."{{Sfn|Vasari|1991|p=442}} Julius II died only months after the ceiling's completion, in February 1513.<ref name=":7" />

<!-- Section reference.<ref name="Vasari" />{{sfn|Mancinelli|1986}}{{sfn|Condivi|1999}}<ref>Hurst 1986</ref> -->According to Vasari and Condivi, Michelangelo painted in a standing position, not lying on his back, as another biographer, [[Paolo Giovio]], imagined.<ref name=":8">{{Cite book|last=Barkan|first=Leonard|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5PeRBgAAQBAJ|title=Michelangelo: A Life on Paper|publisher=Princeton University Press|year=2011|isbn=978-0-691-14766-6|pages=87–92|language=en}}</ref> Vasari wrote: "These frescos were done with the greatest discomfort, for he had to stand there working with his head tilted backwards."{{Sfn|Vasari|1991|p=443}} Michelangelo may have described his physical discomfort in a poem, accompanied by a sketch in the margin, which was probably addressed to the humanist academician Giovanni di Benedetto da Pistoia, a friend with whom Michelangelo corresponded.<ref name=":8" /> [[Leonard Barkan]] compared the posture of Michelangelo's [[marginalia]] self-portrait to the [[Roman sculpture]]s of ''Marsyas Bound'' in the [[Uffizi Gallery]]; Barkan further connects the flayed [[Marsyas]] with Michelangelo's purported self-portrait decades later on the flayed skin of [[St Bartholomew]] in his ''Last Judgment'' but cautions that there is no certainty the sketch represents the process of painting the chapel ceiling.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Barkan|first=Leonard|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5PeRBgAAQBAJ|title=Michelangelo: A Life on Paper|publisher=Princeton University Press|year=2011|isbn=978-0-691-14766-6|pages=90|language=en}}</ref> Michelangelo wrote the poem describing the arduous conditions under which he worked. Michelangelo's illustrated poem reads:

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<!--Don't try to improve. There's no way to center the text, and removing the Italian doesn't free up space.-->
{{Verse translation|I’ ho già fatto un gozzo in questo stento,
coma fa l’acqua a’ gatti in Lombardia
o ver d’altro paese che si sia,
c’a forza ’l ventre appicca sotto ’l mento.
  La barba al cielo, e la memoria sento
in sullo scrigno, e ’l petto fo d’arpia,
e ’l pennel sopra ’l viso tuttavia
mel fa, gocciando, un ricco pavimento.
  E’ lombi entrati mi son nella peccia,
e fo del cul per contrapeso groppa,
e’ passi senza gli occhi muovo invano.
  Dinanzi mi s’allunga la corteccia,
e per piegarsi adietro si ragroppa,
e tendomi com’arco sorïano.
      Però fallace e strano
surge il iudizio che la mente porta,
ché mal si tra’ per cerbottana torta.
      La mia pittura morta
difendi orma’, Giovanni, e ’l mio onore,
non sendo in loco bon, né io pittore.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Buonarroti|first=Michelangelo|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CmtdAAAAMAAJ|title=Rime|publisher=G. Laterza|year=1960|editor-last=Girardi|editor-first=Enzo Noè|edition=1st|location=Bari|pages=4–5, 158–159}}</ref>
|I've grown a goitre by dwelling in this den–
As cats from stagnant streams in Lombardy,
Or in what other land they hap to be–
Which drives the belly close beneath the chin:
My beard turns up to heaven; my nape falls in,
Fixed on my spine: my breast-bone visibly
Grows like a harp: a rich embroidery
Bedews my face from brush-drops thick and thin.
My loins into my paunch like levers grind:
My buttock like a crupper bears my weight;
My feet unguided wander to and fro;
In front my skin grows loose and long; behind,
By bending it becomes more taut and strait;
Crosswise I strain me like a Syrian bow:
Whence false and quaint, I know,
Must be the fruit of squinting brain and eye;
For ill can aim the gun that bends awry.
Come then, Giovanni, try
To succour my dead pictures and my fame;
Since foul I fare and painting is my shame.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Buonarroti|first=Michelangelo|url=https://archive.org/details/sonnetsofmichael00mich_0|title=The Sonnets of Michael Angelo Buonarroti and Tommaso Campanella|publisher=Smith, Elder, & Co.|year=1878|location=London|page=[https://archive.org/details/sonnetsofmichael00mich_0/page/35 35]|language=en}}</ref>|lang=it|attr2=''№ 5: ''To Giovanni a Pistoia'' – On the Painting of the Sistine Chapel'',<br /> trans. [[John Addington Symonds]], 1878|attr1=''№ 5. "A Giovanni quel propio da Pistoia"''}}

Jelbert has suggested that the physical pain described in this poem, and the pose of Michelangelo in his illustration for it, resonate with the agonised postures of the Vatican's 'Laocoön Group'.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Jelbert |first=Rebecca |date=2019 |title=Aping the Masters?: Michelangelo and the Laocoön Group |url=https://www.artcrimeresearch.org/journal-of-art-crime/ |journal=[[The Journal of Art Crime]] |issue=22 |page=11}}</ref> In the illustration, suggests Jelbert, Michelangelo appears to have drawn himself as the dying son on the right-hand side of the group (his arm sheered at the wrist), and the figure he is painting has the raised knees, wild eyes and broken right arm of Laocoön himself. Michelangelo's reference to the 'Laocoön Group' in the 'Brazen Serpent' has been noted above, but the artist also alluded to this sculpture in other areas of the Sistine ceiling, including the 'Punishment of Haman',<ref>{{Cite book|last=Chapman|first=Hugo|title=Michelangelo, Drawings: Closer to the Master|date=2005|publisher=The British Museum Press|isbn=978-0-7141-2648-7|pages=137–38|language=en}}</ref> and a pair of ignudi between the 'Sacrifice of Noah' and the 'Prophet Isiah'.<ref>{{Cite book|last=De Tolnay|first=Charles|title=Michelangelo, Volume 2: The Sistine Ceiling|date=1945|publisher=Princeton University Press|page=65|language=en}}</ref>

== Content ==
[[File:Sixtinische-Kappele-Fresko.JPG|thumb|Detail showing intersection of first and second registers, with: a prophet, a lunette, a sibyl, ''ignudi'', medallions, bronze figures, and ''telamones'']]

[[File:Hands of God and Adam.jpg|thumb|Detail from ''[[The Creation of Adam]]'', portraying the creation of mankind by God.<ref name=":5" /> The two index fingers are separated by a small gap [{{convert|3/4|in|cm}}]: some scholars think that it represents [[Apophatic theology|the unattainability of divine perfection by man]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Tallis|first=Raymond|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rYEmqPH8fvgC|title=Michelangelo's Finger. An Exploration of Everyday Transcendence|publisher=[[Atlantic Books]]|year=2010|isbn=978-1-84887-552-4|location=Ormond House in [[Bloomsbury]], [[London Borough of Camden]]|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=rYEmqPH8fvgC&dq=%22The+Creation+of+Adam%22%22At+the+centre%22%22are+two+fingers+separated+by+a+small+gap%22%22It+represents+the+moment+after+the+separation+of+God+and+man%22%22index+fingers+are+the+final+point+at+which+separation+takes+place%22&pg=PT5 v]|author-link=Raymond Tallis}}</ref>]]

Michelangelo's frescoes form the [[backstory]] to the 15th-century narrative cycles of the lives of Moses and [[Jesus Christ]] by Perugino and Botticelli on the chapel's walls.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":3" /> While the main central scenes depict incidents in the [[Book of Genesis]], the first book of the [[Bible]], much debate exists on the multitudes of figures' exact interpretation.<ref name=":3" /><ref name=":0" /> The Sistine Chapel's ceiling is a shallow barrel vault around 35&nbsp;metres (118&nbsp;feet) long and around 14&nbsp;m (46&nbsp;ft) broad.<ref name=":2" /> The chapel's windows cut into the vault's curve, producing a row of [[lunette]]s alternating with [[spandrel]]s.<ref name=":2" />

Though Michelangelo claimed he eventually had a free hand in the artistic scheme, this claim was also made by [[Lorenzo Ghiberti]] about his monumental bronze doors for the [[Florence Baptistery]], for which it is known Ghiberti was constrained by stipulations on how the Old Testament scenes should appear and was able to decide merely the forms and number of the picture fields. It is likely that Michelangelo was free to choose forms and presentation of the design, but that the subjects and themes themselves were decided by the patron.{{sfn|Pfisterer|2018|pp=53–56}}

The central, almost flat [[Field (heraldry)|field]] of the ceiling is delineated by a fictive architectural [[cornice]] and divided into four large rectangles and five smaller ones by five pairs of painted [[Rib vault|ribs]] which cut laterally across the central rectangular field. Michelangelo painted these rectangles, which appear open to the sky, with scenes from the Old Testament.<ref name=":2" />

The narrative begins at the chapel's east end, with the first scene above the [[Altar (Catholic Church)|altar]], focus of the [[Eucharist in the Catholic Church|Eucharistic ceremonies]] performed by the [[clergy]]. The small rectangular field directly above the altar depicts the ''Primal Act of Creation''. The last of the nine central fields, at the west end, shows the ''Drunkenness of Noah''; below this scene is the door used by the [[Catholic laity|laity]].<ref name=":2" /> Furthest from the altar, the ''Drunkenness of Noah'' represents the sinful nature of man.<ref name=":2" />

Above the cornice, at the four corners of each of the five smaller central fields, are [[Nude (art)|nude]] male youths, called ''[[#Ignudi|ignudi]]'', whose precise significance is unknown.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":3" /><ref name=":0" /> Close to the sacred scenes in the uppermost register and unlike the figures of the lower register shown in perspective, they are not [[foreshortened]].<ref name=":2" /> They probably represent the [[Platonic Academy (Florence)|Florentine Neoplatonists]]' view of humanity's ideal [[Theory of forms|Platonic form]], without the mar of [[Original sin|Original Sin]], to which the lower figures are all subject.<ref name=":2" /> [[Kenneth Clark]] wrote that "their physical beauty is an image of divine perfection; their alert and vigorous movements an expression of divine energy".<ref>{{Cite book|last=Clark|first=Kenneth|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Mn44AAAAIAAJ|title=The Nude: A Study in Ideal Form|date=1956|publisher=Pantheon Books (reprint)|isbn=978-1-56731-123-5|pages=208|language=en}}</ref>

Below the painted cornice around the central rectangular area is a lower [[Register (art)|register]] depicting a continuation of the chapel's walls as a [[trompe-l'œil]] architectural framework against which figures press, with powerful [[Composition (visual arts)|modelling]].<ref name=":2" /> The figures are drastically foreshortened and are at larger [[Scale (ratio)|scale]] than the figures in the central scenes, which according to Harold Osborne and Hugh Brigstocke creates "a&nbsp;sense of spatial disequilibrium".<ref name=":2" />

The ceiling at the chapel's four corners forms a doubled spandrel painted with [[Salvation in Christianity|salvific]] scenes from the Old Testament: ''The Brazen Serpent'', ''The Crucifixion of Haman'', ''Judith and Holofernes'', and ''David and Goliath''.<ref name=":2" /> On the crescent-shaped areas, or lunettes, above each of the chapel's windows are tablets listing the [[ancestors of Christ]] and accompanying figures. Above them, in the triangular spandrels, a further eight groups of figures are shown, but these have not been identified with specific biblical characters. The scheme is completed by four corner doubled-spandrels, also referred to less accurately as [[pendentive]]s, each illustrating a dramatic biblical story.{{sfn|Gardner|1970|p=469}}

Each of the chapel's window arches cuts into the curved vault, creating above each a triangular area of vaulting. The arch of each window is separated from the next by these triangular spandrels, in each of which are enthroned ''[[Prophet]]s'' alternating with the ''[[Sibyl]]s''.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":3" /><ref name=":0" /> These figures, seven Old Testament prophets and five of the Graeco-Roman sibyls, were notable in Christian tradition for their prophesies of the [[Messiah]] or the [[Nativity of Jesus]].<ref name=":2" /> The lunettes above the windows are themselves painted with scenes of the "purely human" ''Ancestors of Christ'', as are the spaces either side of each window. Their position is both the lowest in the vault and the darkest, in contrast with the airy upper vault.<ref name=":2" />

=== Interpretation ===
The overt subject matter of the ceiling is the Christian doctrine of humanity's need for [[salvation]] as offered by [[God in Christianity|God]] through Jesus. It is a visual metaphor of humankind's need for a [[Covenant (religion)|covenant]] with God. The [[Old Covenant]] of the [[Children of Israel]] through Moses and the [[New Covenant]] through Christ had already  been represented around the walls of the chapel.{{sfn|Shearman|1986|pp=38–87}} Some experts, including [[Benjamin Blech]] and Vatican art historian Enrico Bruschini, have also noted less overt subject matter, which they describe as being "concealed" and "forbidden."<ref>Blech, Benjamin (2008). ''The Sistine Secrets: Michelangelo's Forbidden Messages in the Heart of the Vatican'', HarperOne, pp. ix, x, 130, 158.</ref>

The main scheme of the ceiling illustrates God creating the perfect world prior to creating humanity, which causes [[Fall of man|its own fall into disgrace]] and is punished by being made mortal;{{sfn|Gardner|1970|p=469}} humanity then sinks further into sin and disgrace, and is punished by the [[Genesis flood narrative|Great Flood]]. The ceiling's creation narrative ends with [[Noah's drunkenness]], which [[Jesuit]] theologian [[John W. O'Malley]] says could be interpreted as focusing on the separation of [[Gentile]]s from [[Jews as the chosen people]].{{sfn|O'Malley|1986|p=130}} Then, through a lineage of ancestors{{Snd}}from [[Abraham]] to [[Saint Joseph|Joseph]]{{Snd}}God sends the saviour of humanity, Jesus, whose coming is [[Old Testament messianic prophecies quoted in the New Testament|claimed in the New Testament to have been prophesied]] by prophets of Israel (to whom Michelangelo adds sibyls of the Classical world) and whose [[second coming]] the same artist returned to paint on the altar wall in his ''[[The Last Judgment (Michelangelo)|Last Judgment]]''. The prophet [[Jonah]], recognizable over the altar by the great fish beside him,<ref name="Pro_Jon" group="Fig" /> is cited by Jesus in the [[gospel]]s as being related to [[Crucifixion of Jesus|his own coming death]] and [[Resurrection of Jesus|resurrection]],{{sfn|O'Malley|1986|pp=107, 119-120}}<ref group="Src">[[Gospel of Matthew]] {{bibleref2-nb|Matthew|12:39–40|KJV}}.</ref> which [[Staale Sinding-Larsen]] says "activates the [[Passion of Jesus|Passion]] motif".<ref name="Jaritz">{{cite book |last=Sinding-Larsen |first=Staale |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zQHWi7XBtNYC&dq=%22the+Jonah+figure+being+placed+right+over+the+altar+activates+the+Passion+motif&pg=PA16 |title=Ritual, Images, and Daily Life. The Medieval Perspective |publisher=[[LIT Verlag]] |year=2012 |isbn=978-3-643-90113-2 |editor-last=Jaritz |editor-first=Gerhard |location=[[Münster]] |pages=16}}</ref> In the [[Gospel of John]], moreover, Jesus compares his being raised (i.e. his crucifixion){{sfn|O'Malley|1986|p=134}} to Moses lifting [[Nehushtan|the Brazen Serpent]]<ref group="Src">Gospel of John {{bibleref2-nb|John|3:14–15|KJV}}</ref> to heal Israelites from [[Fiery flying serpent|fiery serpent]] bites;<ref group="Src" name=fiery>Numbers {{bibleref2-nb|Numbers|21:4–9|KJV}}</ref> the latter is painted on the doubled spandrel/pendentive above the altar to the left, opposite the ''Punishment of [[Haman]]'', depicted as a crucifixion instead of a hanging.{{sfn|O'Malley|1986|p=134}}

Of the three [[Twelve Minor Prophets]] depicted on the ceiling, O'Malley discusses Jonah and [[Zechariah (Hebrew prophet)|Zechariah]] as carrying a particular significance.{{sfn|O'Malley|1986|pp=107, 120}} In addition to Jonah's connection to Jesus, O'Malley points out that he is a spokesman to the Gentiles.{{sfn|O'Malley|1986|pp=107, 119-120}} Zechariah prophesied that the [[The Messiah's Donkey|Messiah would arrive on a donkey]].<ref group="Src">[[Book of Zechariah|Zechariah]], chapter 9, verse 9; [[Gospel of Matthew|Matthew]], chapter 21, verses 4–5</ref>{{sfn|O'Malley|1986|pp=106–107}} His place in the chapel is directly above the doorway across from the altar, through which the pope is carried in procession on [[Palm Sunday]], the day on which [[Triumphal entry into Jerusalem|Jesus rode a donkey]] into [[Jerusalem]].{{sfn|O'Malley|1986|pp=120–122}}

Much of the symbolism of the ceiling dates from the early church, but the ceiling also has elements that express the specifically Renaissance thinking that sought to reconcile Christian theology with the philosophy of [[Renaissance humanism]].{{sfn|O'Malley|1986|p=112}} During the 15th century in Italy, and in Florence in particular, there was a strong interest in [[Classics|Classical literature]] and the philosophies of [[Plato]], [[Aristotle]] and other Classical writers. Michelangelo, as a young man, had spent time at the Platonic Academy established by the [[Medici]] family in Florence. He was familiar with early humanist-inspired sculptural works such as [[Donatello]]'s bronze ''[[David (Donatello, bronze)|David]]'' and had himself responded by carving the enormous nude marble ''[[David (Michelangelo)|David]]'', which was placed in the [[Piazza della Signoria]] near the [[Palazzo Vecchio]], the home of Florence's council.{{sfn|Gardner|1970|pp=466–467}} The humanist view of spirituality was that it is rooted in human nature and independent from intermediaries such as the Church,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Aston |first=Margaret |url=https://archive.org/details/fifteenthcentury0000asto/page/111/ |title=The Fifteenth Century: The Prospect of Europe |publisher=W.W. Norton |year=1979 |isbn=0-393-95097-2 |location=New York |pages=111–112 |language=en |oclc=6336826 |author-link=Margaret Aston}}</ref> which emphasized humanity as essentially sinful and flawed. A synthesis, with man dignified and created [[Image of God|in God's image]], was epitomized by [[Giovanni Pico Della Mirandola]]'s ''[[Oration on the Dignity of Man]]'', which was referenced in sermons given at the papal court.{{sfn|O'Malley|1986|p=122}}

The iconography of the ceiling has had various interpretations in the past, some elements of which have been contradicted by modern scholarship.{{efn|Both Vasari and Condivi mistake the ''Sacrifice of Noah'' for the sacrifices by [[Cain and Abel]].{{sfn|O'Malley|1986|p=102}}{{sfn|Vasari|1991|p=445}}}} Others, such as the identity of the figures in the lunettes and spandrels poppets, continue to defy interpretation.{{sfn|O'Malley|1986|pp=102–110}} Modern scholars have sought, as yet unsuccessfully, to determine a written source of the theological program of the ceiling and have questioned whether or not it was entirely devised by Michelangelo, who was both an avid reader of the Bible and is considered to be a genius.{{sfn|O'Malley|1986|p=105}} Art historian [[Anthony Bertram]] argues that the artist expressed his inner turmoil in the work, saying: "The principal opposed forces in this conflict were his passionate admiration for classical beauty and his profound, almost mystical Catholicism, his [presumed] homosexuality, and his horror of [[Sexual intercourse|carnal sin]] combined with a lofty [[Platonic love|Platonic concept of love]]."<ref>Bertram, Anthony (1964). ''Michelangelo'', [[Studio Vista]].</ref>

[[Edgar Wind]] postulated that the ten medallions represented violations of the [[Ten Commandments]], with the obscured one above the [[Persian Sibyl]] standing for [[adultery]]. O'Malley points out that, if this is the case, the infractions of the commandments are arranged out of order.{{sfn|O'Malley|1986|p=130}}

== Architectural scheme ==
[[File:Vatican Museums-6 (263).jpg|thumb|upright=1.24|The ceiling's west end (above the entrance)]]

The Sistine Chapel is about 35&nbsp;m (118&nbsp;ft) long and {{Convert|14|m|abbr=on}} wide,<ref name=":2" /> with the ceiling rising to about {{Convert|20|m|abbr=on}} above the main floor.{{sfn|Shearman|1986|p=28}}{{sfn|O'Malley|1986|p=128}} The vault is of quite a complex design and it is unlikely that it was originally intended to have such elaborate decoration.<ref name=":6" />

The chapel walls have three horizontal tiers with six arched windows in the upper tier on each side. There were also two windows at each end; however, these were closed up above the altar when Michelangelo's ''The Last Judgment'' was painted, obliterating two [[lunette]]s. Between the windows are large spandrels that support the vault. Above each window, the ceiling features triangular spandrels that rise from the tops of the [[pilaster]]s between the windows. At each corner of the chapel, there are doubled spandrels, also referred to as pendentives, which depict scenes of the miraculous salvation of the people of Israel: ''The Brazen Serpent'', ''The Punishment of Haman'', ''David and Goliath'', and ''Judith and Holofernes''.<ref>{{cite web |title=Sistine Chapel Ceiling: The Pendentives |url=https://www.museivaticani.va/content/museivaticani/en/collezioni/musei/cappella-sistina/volta/pennacchi.html |access-date=25 March 2025 |publisher=Musei Vaticani}}</ref> Above the height of these spandrels, the ceiling forms a flattened cross vault (or [[groin vault]]), springing from a continuous [[String Course|string course]] that encircles the walls at the level of the window arches.{{sfn|Shearman|1986|pp=29–30}}

The first element in Michelangelo's scheme of painted architecture is the visual clarification of the real architectural structure, achieved by accentuating the junctions between the vault and the supporting elements—namely, the triangular window spandrels and the four larger corner doubled spandrels (sometimes referred to as pendentives).<ref>{{cite web |title=Sistine Chapel Ceiling: The Pendentives |url=https://www.museivaticani.va/content/museivaticani/en/collezioni/musei/cappella-sistina/volta/pennacchi.html |access-date=25 March 2025 |publisher=Musei Vaticani}}</ref> Michelangelo achieved this by painting illusionistic architectural frames that both delineate and integrate these structural features into the overall compositional logic of the ceiling.<ref>{{cite book |last=Hall |first=Marcia B. |title=Michelangelo: The Frescoes of the Sistine Chapel |publisher=Harry N. Abrams |year=2002 |isbn=9780810935192 |page=23}}</ref> Michelangelo painted these as decorative courses that look like sculpted stone [[Molding (decorative)|mouldings]].{{efn|These are not marked on the drawn plan but are clearly visible in the photographs.}} These have two repeating motifs:{{efn|This evokes a formula common in [[Classical architecture]], e.g. '[[egg and dart]]' and '[[bead and reel]]'.}} the acorn and the scallop shell. The acorn is the symbol of the family of both Pope Sixtus IV, who built the chapel, and Julius&nbsp;II, who commissioned Michelangelo's work.{{sfn|O'Malley|1986|p=100}}{{efn|name="Rovere"|Sixtus&nbsp;IV and Julius&nbsp;II were both of the [[Della Rovere]] family. "[[wikt:rovere|Rovere]]" in Italian means '[[oak]]'.{{sfn|O'Malley|1986|p=100}}}} The scallop shell is one of the symbols of the [[Madonna (art)|Madonna]], to whose Assumption the chapel was dedicated in 1483.<ref>Partridge 1996, p.&nbsp;9</ref>{{efn|The scallop shell (and pearl) is a symbol of the doctrine of [[Incarnation (Christianity)|the Incarnation]] in Renaissance and baroque art.}} The crown of the wall then rises above the spandrels, to a strongly projecting painted cornice that runs right around the ceiling, separating the pictorial areas of the biblical scenes from the figures of prophets, sibyls, and ancestors, who literally and figuratively support the narratives. Ten broad painted cross-ribs of [[travertine]] cross the ceiling and divide it into alternately wide and narrow pictorial spaces, a grid that gives all the figures their defined place.{{sfn|O'Malley|1986|p=95}}

A great number of small figures are integrated with the painted architecture, their purpose apparently purely decorative. These include pilasters with capitals supported by pairs of infant ''[[Atlas (architecture)|telamones]],'' rams' skulls are placed at the apex of each spandrel like ''[[bucrania]]''; bronze nude figures in varying poses, hiding in the shadows, propped between the spandrels and the ribs like animated bookends; and more ''putti'', both clothed and unclothed, strike a variety of poses as they support the nameplates of the ''Prophets and Sibyls''.{{sfn|O'Malley|1986|pp=104–105, 160–161}} Above the cornice and to either side of the smaller scenes are an array of medallions, or round shields. They are framed by a total of 20 more figures, the so-called ''ignudi'', which are not part of the architecture but sit on [[plinth]]s, their feet planted convincingly on the fictive cornice. Pictorially, the ''ignudi'' appear to occupy a space between the narrative spaces and the space of the chapel itself.

{{gallery|mode=packed
|Michelangelo, pennacchi.jpg|The ceiling's west end (detail), showing pendentives and the ''Prophet Zechariah''
|Michelangelo - Sistine Chapel ceiling - 1st bay.jpg|''Separation of Light from Darkness'', showing illusionary architecture and flanking ''Prophets''
}}

== Pictorial scheme ==
{{See also|Gallery of Sistine Chapel ceiling}}
[[File:7 Estancia del Sello (Bóveda).jpg|thumb|The ceiling of the [[Stanza della Segnatura]] in the Vatican Palace, commissioned by Julius in 1508]]
Like many Renaissance patrons, Pope Julius wanted the ceiling to follow a design he specified, and in early 1508 Michelangelo was presented with a scheme, which has not survived. The ceiling was to be divided into "an interlocking geometric pattern of squares and circles", and images were to include the [[Twelve Apostles]]<ref name=":6" /> on the spandrels. Other commissions by Julius in the same year, for ceilings in [[Santa Maria del Popolo]] and the [[Stanza della Segnatura]] in the Vatican Palace, also had geometric frameworks, all probably influenced by the Imperian Roman remains of [[Hadrian's Villa, Tivoli]].<ref>King, 53-54, 54 quoted</ref>

Michelangelo worked on drawings following the Pope's scheme, but eventually decided that it did not allow for sufficient numbers of human figures, his main interest in the commission. At a meeting later in the year, Julius allowed Michelangelo to change the design; according to Michelangelo's later account "he gave me a new commission, to do what I liked", a claim many art historians suspect is rather overstated.<ref>King, 55-58, 56 quoted</ref>

The artist almost certainly worked with one or more specialist theologians, perhaps including [[Egidio da Viterbo]], and perhaps the aristocratic papal diplomat Cardinal [[Francesco Alidosi]], who Michelangelo used to help him dealing with Julius.<ref>King, 36-37, 56-57</ref>
{{wide image|CAPPELLA SISTINA Ceiling.jpg|650px|{{centre|The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel}}}}
{{wide image|Sistine Chapel ceiling diagram overlay composite.png|700px|Plan of the pictorial elements of the ceiling showing the division of the narrative scenes into three-part themes}}

=== Nine scenes from the Book of Genesis ===
Along the central section of the ceiling, Michelangelo depicted nine scenes from the Book of Genesis,<ref name=":6" /> organized into three groups of three related scenes. The scenes alternate between smaller and larger pictures, with the former framed by two pairs of ''ignudi'' flanking a medallion.<ref name=Paoletti>{{Cite book|last1=Paoletti|first1=John T.|last2=Radke|first2=Gary M.|url=https://archive.org/details/artinrenaissance0000paol/page/345/|year=1997|title=Art in Renaissance Italy|publisher=[[Prentice Hall]]|location=Upper Saddle River, NJ|isbn=0-13-596925-5|pages=345–346}}</ref>
The first group depicts God [[Genesis creation narrative|creating the Heavens and the Earth]]. The second group shows God creating the first man and woman, [[Adam and Eve]], and their disobedience of God and consequent expulsion from the [[Garden of Eden]]. The third group shows the plight of humanity and in particular the family of Noah.

{{Multiple image
| align =
| direction = vertical
| total_width =
| image1 = Vaticano 2011 (52).JPG
| alt1 =
| caption1 = ''Separation of Light from Darkness''
| image2 = The Creation of the Sun and the Moon, Michelangelo (1508-1512).jpg
| caption2 = ''Creation of the Sun, Moon, and Plants''
| image3 = Michelangelo, Separation of the Earth from the Waters 00.jpg
| caption3 = ''Separation of Land and Water''
}}

The pictures within the three groups link to one another, in the same way as was usual in [[Medieval art]] and [[stained glass]].{{efn|name=poorman|For instance, [[Poor Man's Bible]]s}} The nine scenes are oriented to be viewed while facing the altar, chronologically unfolding towards the chapel entrance<ref name=Paoletti /> (except for the second and third scenes, and the seventh and eighth, which are each transposed).{{sfn|O'Malley|1986|p=130}}<ref group="Src">Genesis, chapters 1, 8–9</ref> John T. Paoletti and Gary M. Radke suggest that this reversed progression symbolises a return to a state of [[Divine grace|grace]].<ref name=Paoletti />
The scenes, from the altar towards the main door, are as follows:

# ''The Separation of Light from Darkness''
# ''The Creation of the Sun, Moon and Plants''
# ''The Separation of Land and Water''
# ''The Creation of Adam''
# ''The Creation of Eve''
# ''The Fall and Expulsion''
# ''The Sacrifice of Noah''
# ''The Great Flood''
# ''The Drunkenness of Noah''<!---The links have been removed from this list for the sake of consistency, as only some of them were linked. The links are now within the paragraphs pertaining to each picture--->

==== Creation ====
{{Main|Separation of Light from Darkness|The Creation of the Sun, Moon and Plants}}

The three creation pictures show scenes from the first chapter of Genesis, which relates that God created the Earth and its inhabitants in six days, resting on the seventh day. In the first scene, the ''First Day of Creation'', God creates light and separates light from darkness.<ref group="Fig">[[:File:First Day of Creation.jpg|First Day of Creation]], in context with medallions and ''Ignudi'' (restored)</ref> Chronologically, the next scene takes place in the third panel, in which, on the ''Second Day'', God divides the waters from the heavens.<ref group="Fig">[[:File:Michelangelo, Separation of the Earth from the Waters 00.jpg|Dividing Water and Heavens]], in context with medallions and ''Ignudi'' (restored)</ref> In the central scene, the largest of the three, there are two representations of God: on the ''Third Day'', God creates the Earth and makes it sprout plants; on the ''Fourth Day'', God puts the Sun and the Moon in place to govern the night and the day, the time and the seasons of the year.{{sfn|O'Malley|1986|pp=132–133}}<ref group="Fig">[[:File:The Creation of the Sun and the Moon, Michelangelo (1508-1512).jpg|Creation of the Earth and the celestial bodies]], (restored)</ref>{{efn|According to Genesis, on the fifth day, God created the birds of the air and fish and creatures of the deep, but this is not depicted, nor is God's creation of the creatures of the earth on the sixth day.<ref group="Src">Genesis, chapter 1</ref>}}

These three scenes, completed in the third stage of painting, are the most broadly conceived, the most broadly painted and the most dynamic of all the pictures. Of the first scene Vasari says, "Michelangelo depicted God dividing the light from the darkness&nbsp;... where He is seen in all His majesty as He sustains Himself alone with open arms in a demonstration of love and creative energy."{{Sfn|Vasari|1991|p=444}}

{{Multiple image
| align = left
| direction = vertical
| total_width =
| image1 = Creación de Adán.jpg
| alt1 =
| caption1 = ''Creation of Adam''
| image2 = Michelangelo, Creation of Eve 00.jpg
| caption2 = ''Creation of Eve''
| caption3 = ''The Fall and Expulsion from Paradise''
| image3 = Expulsion del paraíso.jpg
}}

==== Adam and Eve ====
{{Further|The Creation of Adam}}
For the central section of the ceiling, Michelangelo took four episodes from the story of Adam and Eve as told in the first, second and third chapters of Genesis. In this sequence of three, two of the panels are large and one small.

In the first of the pictures, one of the most widely recognized images in the history of painting, Michelangelo shows God reaching out to touch [[Adam]]. Vasari describes Adam as "a figure whose beauty, pose, and contours are of such a quality that he seems newly created by his Supreme and First Creator rather than by the brush and design of a mere mortal."{{Sfn|Vasari|1991|p=445}} From beneath the sheltering arm of God, [[Eve]] looks out somewhat apprehensively.{{sfn|Gardner|1970|p=471}} Correspondingly, Adam reaches out to the creator, who [[Walter Pater]] states "comes with the forms of things to be, woman and her progeny, in the fold of his garment".<ref name=Pater>{{Cite book|last=Pater|first=Walter|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OEVXiKyENo4C|title=The Renaissance: Studies in Art and Poetry|publisher=Courier Corporation [2005, 2013 reprint]|year=1893|isbn=978-0-486-14648-5|edition=4th|pages=52, 55|language=en}}</ref> Pater wrote of the depiction of Adam in the ''Creation'':<ref name=Pater />

{{Blockquote|text=Fair as the young men of the [[Elgin Marbles|Elgin marbles]], the Adam of the Sistine Chapel is unlike them in a total absence of that balance and completeness which express so well the sentiment of a self-contained, independent life. In that languid figure there is something rude and [[satyr]]-like, something akin to the rugged hillside on which it lies. His whole form is gathered into an expression of mere expectation and reception; he has hardly strength enough to lift his finger to touch the finger of the creator; yet a touch of the finger-tips will suffice.}}

The central scene, of God creating Eve from the side of the sleeping Adam<ref group="Fig">[[:File:Creation of Eve.jpg|God creating Eve from the side of the sleeping Adam]], in context with medallions and ''Ignudi'' (before restoration)</ref> has been taken in its composition directly from another creation sequence, the relief panels that surround the door of the [[Basilica of San Petronio]], [[Bologna]], by [[Jacopo della Quercia]], whose work Michelangelo had studied in his youth.{{sfn|Bartz|König|2013|p=54}}{{sfn|Gardner|1970|p=467}}
In the final panel of this sequence, Michelangelo combines two contrasting scenes into one panel,<ref group="Fig">[[:File:Forbidden fruit.jpg|Adam and Eve: temptation and banishment]] (restored)</ref> that of Adam and Eve taking fruit from the [[Tree of the knowledge of good and evil|forbidden tree]] (a [[Common fig|fig]] and not an [[apple tree]] as [[Tree of the knowledge of good and evil#Christianity|commonly depicted in Western Christian art]]),<ref>{{cite news |last=Rupp |first=Rebecca |title=The History of the "Forbidden" Fruit |url=https://www.nationalgeographic.com/people-and-culture/food/the-plate/2014/07/22/history-of-apples/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180618131549/https://www.nationalgeographic.com/people-and-culture/food/the-plate/2014/07/22/history-of-apples/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=18 June 2018 |magazine=[[National Geographic]] |date=22 July 2014 |access-date=30 April 2019}}</ref> Eve trustingly taking it from the hand of the [[Serpent (symbolism)#Judaic and Christian symbolism|Serpent]] (depicted as [[Lilith]]) and Adam eagerly picking it for himself, as well as their banishment from the Garden of Eden, where they have lived in the company of God, to the world outside where they have to fend for themselves and experience death.<ref name="Gold" /><ref group="Src">Genesis, chapters 1–3</ref>

{{Multiple image
| align =
| direction = vertical
| total_width =
| image1 = Michelangelo, Sacrifice of Noah 00.jpg
| alt1 =
| caption1 = ''Sacrifice of Noah''
| image2 = Deluge, Michelangelo.png
| caption2 = ''The Flood''
| image3 = Michelangelo, Drunkenness of Noah 00.jpg
| caption3 = ''Drunkenness of Noah''
}}

==== Noah ====
As with the first sequence of pictures, the three panels concerning Noah, taken from the sixth to ninth chapters of Genesis are thematic rather than chronological. In the first scene is shown the sacrifice of a sheep.<ref group="Fig">[[:File:Sacrifice of Noah michaelangelo.jpg|The Sacrifice of Noah]] (restored)</ref> Both Vasari and Condivi mistake this scene for the sacrifices by [[Cain and Abel]], in which Abel's sacrifice was acceptable to God and Cain's was not.{{sfn|O'Malley|1986|p=102}}{{sfn|Vasari|1991|p=445}} What this image almost certainly depicts is the sacrifice made by the family of Noah, after their safe deliverance from the Great Flood which destroyed the rest of humanity.{{sfn|O'Malley|1986|p=130}}

The central, larger, scene shows the Great Flood.<ref group="Fig">[[:File:Michelangelo Buonarroti 020.jpg|The Great Flood]] (before restoration)</ref> [[Noah's Ark|The Ark]] in which Noah's family escaped floats at the rear of the picture while the rest of humanity tries frantically to scramble to some point of safety. A [[Lightning strike|lightning bolt]], which according to Condivi illustrated God's wrath, was smitten from the ceiling when the chapel was damaged in 1797.{{sfn|Paris|2009|pp=106-107}}

The final scene is the story of Noah's drunkenness.<ref group="Fig">[[:File:Michelangelo Buonarroti 021.jpg|Noah's drunkenness]] in context, with medallions and ''Ignudi'' (before restoration)</ref> After the Flood, Noah tills the soil and grows vines. He is shown doing so in the background of the picture. He becomes drunk and inadvertently exposes himself. His youngest son, [[Ham (son of Noah)|Ham]], brings his two brothers [[Shem]] and [[Japheth]] to see the sight but they discreetly cover their father with a cloak. Ham is later [[curse of Ham|cursed by Noah]] and told that the [[Generations of Noah|descendants of Ham's son]] Canaan will serve Shem and Japheth's descendants forever.<ref group="Src">''Genesis'', chapters 6–9</ref>

Since Michelangelo executed the nine biblical scenes in reverse chronological order, some analyses of the frescoes of the vault commence with the ''Drunkenness of Noah''. [[Charles de Tolnay]]'s [[neoplatonic]] interpretation sees the story of Noah at the beginning and the act of creation by God as the conclusion of the process of ''deificatio'' and the return from physical to spiritual being.<ref>{{cite book|last=de Tolnay|first=Charles|translator-last=Buranelli|translator-first=Nan|title=The Art and Thought of Michelangelo|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1uvpAAAAMAAJ|publisher=Pantheon|year=1964|page=45}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=de Tolnay |first=Charles |date=1953 |title=Letters to the Editor |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3047502 |journal=The Art Bulletin |volume=35 |issue=3 |pages=257–260 |doi=10.2307/3047502 |jstor=3047502 |issn=0004-3079|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

==== Medallions ====
[[File:Medallion detail.jpg|thumb|upright|Detail of ''The Idol of [[Baal]]'', showing the linear use of black paint and gold leaf defining forms]]

Adjacent to the smaller biblical scenes in the first register and supported by the paired ''ignudi'' are ten medallions. In four of the five most highly finished, the space is crowded with figures in violent action, similar to Michelangelo's cartoon for the ''Battle of Cascina''. The subjects depicted are somewhat ambiguous,{{Sfn|O'Malley|1986|pp=102-103}} with Vasari merely saying they are taken from the [[Books of Kings|Book of Kings]].{{sfn|Graham-Dixon|2008|p=134}} According to Ulrich Pfisterer, Michelangelo adapted the medallions from woodcut illustrations in the 1490 [[Malermi Bible]], the first Italian-language Bible, named after its translator, [[Nicolò Malermi]].{{sfn|Pfisterer|2018|p=61}} The medallions have been interpreted as depicting:

* [[Abraham]] about to sacrifice his son [[Isaac]]{{sfn|Graham-Dixon|2008|p=134}}
* The Destruction of the Statue of [[Baal]]
* The worshippers of Baal being brutally slaughtered
* [[Uriah the Hittite|Uriah]] being beaten to death<ref group="Fig">[[:File:Medallion Death of Uriah.jpg|The "Uriah" medallion]]</ref>
* Nathan the priest condemning King [[David]] for murder and adultery
* King David's traitorous son [[Absalom]] caught by his hair in a tree while trying to escape and beheaded by David's troops
* [[Joab]] sneaking up on [[Abner]] to murder him
* [[Jehoram of Israel|Joram]] being hurled from a chariot onto his head
* [[Elijah]] being carried up to Heaven{{sfn|Graham-Dixon|2008|p=134}}
* A subject which was either obliterated or left incomplete{{Sfn|O'Malley|1986|p=130}}<ref group="Fig">[[:File:Michelangelo, Separation of the Earth from the Waters 00.jpg|The incomplete medallion]] on the left-hand side of the "Separation of the Waters" panel</ref>

[[File:Sistine jonah.jpg|thumb|upright|The ''Prophet Jonah'']]
[[File:'Isaiah Sistine Chapel ceiling' by Michelangelo JBU36FXD.jpg|thumb|upright|The ''Prophet Isaiah'']]

=== Twelve prophetic figures ===

On the five spandrels along each side and the two at either end, Michelangelo painted the largest figures on the ceiling: twelve people who prophesied a Messiah. These twelve are seven male prophets of Israel and five ''Sibyls,'' prophetesses of [[classical mythology]]. ''Jonah'' is placed above the altar and ''Zechariah'' at the opposite end. The other five ''Prophets'' and ''Sibyls'' alternate down each long side, each being identified by an inscription on a painted marble tablet supported by a ''[[putto]]''.{{sfn|O'Malley|1986|pp=104–105}}
* [[Jonah]] (<small>IONAS</small>) – above the altar<ref group="Fig" name="Pro_Jon">[[:File:Sistine jonah.jpg|The prophet Jonah]] (restored)</ref>
* [[Jeremiah (prophet)|Jeremiah]] (<small>HIEREMIAS</small>)<ref group="Fig" name="Pro_Jer">[[:File:Michelangelo Buonarroti 027.jpg|The prophet Jeremiah]] (restored)</ref>
* [[Persian Sibyl]] (<small>PERSICHA</small>)<ref group="Fig" name="Sib_P">[[:File:PersianSibylByMichelangelo.jpg|The Persian Sibyl]] (restored)</ref>
* [[Ezekiel]] (<small>EZECHIEL</small>)<ref group="Fig" name="Pro_Eze">[[:File:Ezekiel.jpg|The prophet Ezekiel]] (restored)</ref>
* [[Erythraean Sibyl]] (<small>ERITHRAEA</small>)<ref group="Fig" name="Sib_E">[[:File:Michelangelo Buonarroti 033.jpg|The Erithraean Sibyl]] (before restoration)</ref>
* [[Joel (prophet)|Joel]] (<small>IOEL</small>)<ref group="Fig" name="Pro_Joel">[[:File:Michelangelo Buonarroti 029.jpg|The prophet Joel]] (before restoration)</ref>
* [[Zechariah (Hebrew prophet)|Zechariah]] (<small>ZACHERIAS</small>) – above the main door of the chapel<ref group="Fig" name="Pro_Zec">[[:File:Michelangelo Buonarroti 031.jpg|The prophet Zechariah]] (before restoration)</ref>
* [[Delphic Sibyl]] (<small>DELPHICA</small>)<ref group="Fig" name="Sib_D">[[:File:DelphicSibylByMichelangelo.jpg|The Delphic Sibyl]] (restored)</ref>
* [[Isaiah]] (<small>ESAIAS</small>)<ref group="Fig" name="Pro_Isa">[[:File:Isaiah-Michelangelo.jpg|The prophet Isaiah]] (restored)</ref>
* [[Cumaean Sibyl]] (<small>CVMAEA</small>)<ref group="Fig" name="Sib_C">[[:File:CumaeanSibylByMichelangelo.jpg|The Cumean Sibyl]] (restored)</ref>
* [[Daniel (biblical figure)|Daniel]] (<small>DANIEL</small>)<ref group="Fig" name="Pro_Dan">[[:File:Michelangelo Buonarroti 026.jpg|The prophet Daniel]] (before restoration)</ref>
* [[Libyan Sibyl]] (<small>LIBICA</small>)<ref group="Fig" name="Sib_L">[[:File:LibyanSibyl SistineChapel.jpg|The Libyan Sibyl]] (restored)</ref>

==== Prophets ====
Seven prophets of Israel are depicted on the ceiling, including the four so-called [[major prophet]]s{{Snd}}[[Isaiah]], [[Jeremiah]], [[Ezekiel]], and [[Daniel (biblical figure)|Daniel]]{{sfn|O'Malley|1986|pp=112, 118-120, 126}}{{Snd}}and three of the Twelve Minor Prophets: [[Joel (prophet)|Joel]], Zechariah, and Jonah.{{sfn|O'Malley|1986|pp=106-107, 110, 128-129}}
The [[Book of Joel]] prophesies the triumph of [[Kingdom of Judah|Judah]] over its enemies, and includes the words, "Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams [and] your young men shall see visions."{{sfn|O'Malley|1986|pp=110}}<ref group="Src">Joel, chapter 2, verse 28.</ref> Zechariah was the first ''Prophet'' to be painted.{{sfn|O'Malley|1986|pp=106–107}}

Condivi praises ''Jonah'', including its foreshortening.{{sfn|O'Malley|1986|p=118}} In Vasari's description of the ''Prophets and Sibyls'' he is particularly high in his praise of ''Isaiah'', saying, "anyone who examines this figure will see details taken from Nature herself, the true mother of the art of painting, and will see a figure that with close study can in broad terms teach all the precepts of good painting."{{Sfn|Vasari|1991|p=447}}

[[File:Michelangelo the libyan.jpg|thumb|upright|The ''Libyan Sibyl'']]

==== Sibyls ====
The Sibyls were prophetic women who were resident at shrines or temples throughout the Classical world. These women were similar to Christian prophets in the sense that they were "spokeswomen for the divine oracles" and served as a "mouthpiece of the gods".<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Nicholson |first=Melanie |date=1998 |title=From Sibyl to Witch and beyond: Feminine Archetype in the Poetry of Olga Orozco |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/29741396 |journal=Chasqui |volume=27 |issue=1 |pages=11–22 |doi=10.2307/29741396 |jstor=29741396 |issn=0145-8973|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Furthermore, the Sibyls embodied feminine figures that received messages from the gods and prophesized said messages to the ancient Greeks and Romans who heavily regarded their divinatory practices. Their prophecies predate those of the Christian prophets and were contextually paganistic due to the commonly known beliefs at that time.

Authors from antiquity utilized the Greco-Roman Sibyls to legitimize Christianity. The papal court generally regarded antiquity as setting the stage for Christianity. The text ''[[The Divine Institutes|Divine Institutes]]'' by [[Lactantius|Lactanitus]], a Christian author that was an advisor to Emperor Constantine in 280, was one of the first texts composed to legitimize Christianity and convert pagans and gentiles to the religion. In ''Divine Institutions,'' Lactantius states “Another Sibyl&nbsp;... conveyed the word of God to man and said ‘I am the only god and there is no other.’”, validating monotheism from the written account of a pagan Sibyl.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lactantius |orig-year=c.240-c.320 |url=http://archive.org/details/lactantiusdivine0000lact |title=Lactantius : Divine institutes |date=2003 |publisher=Liverpool : Liverpool University Press |others=Internet Archive |isbn=978-0-85323-988-8}}</ref> Additionally, the [[Cumaean Sibyl]] is quoted by 1st-century BC Roman poet [[Virgil]] in his [[Eclogue 4|Fourth ''Eclogue'']] as declaring that "a new progeny of Heaven" would bring about a return of the "[[Golden Age]]". Many people during the Renaissance interpreted this as foretelling the birth of Jesus.{{sfn|O'Malley|1986|pp=116-117}}

This association of the Sibyls with Christianity also progresses into Christian worship in the [[Middle Ages]], as they appeared in the [[Dies irae|Dies Irae]] Latin hymn produced by either the [[Franciscans|Franciscan]] or [[Dominican Order|Dominican]] monastic order. The hymn utilizes the pagan Sybil as a witness to [[David]]'s lineage to Christ and uses these figures from Greco-Roman antiquity to support the Christian beliefs of the coming of Christ from an era before the prophets.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Library : Dies Irae, Masterpiece of Latin Poetry |url=https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?recnum=7527. |access-date=2024-04-03 |website=www.catholicculture.org}}</ref> There was an increasing interest in the remains of [[Religion in ancient Rome|Rome's pagan past]] within the Catholic Church; scholars had turned from reading Medieval [[ecclesiastical Latin]] texts to [[classical Latin]] and the philosophies of the Classical world were studied along with the writings of [[Augustine of Hippo|St Augustine]]. Thus, the presence of five pagan prophets in the Sistine Chapel is not surprising.{{sfn|O'Malley|1986|pp=107–117}} Furthermore, this is not the first appearance of Sibyls within a Christian church. Michelangelo's mentor [[Domenico Ghirlandaio]] painted Sibyls on the ceiling of [[Santa Trinita]]'s [[Sassetti Chapel]] approximately 20 years prior to the start of the Sistine Chapel ceiling.

It is not known why Michelangelo selected the five particular Sibyls that were depicted, given that there were ten possibilities. O'Malley suggests that the four besides the Cumaean Sibyl were selected for a wide geographic coverage, as they come from [[Africa]], [[Asia]], [[Greece]] and [[Ionia]].{{sfn|O'Malley|1986|p=116}}

Vasari says of the ''Erythraean Sibyl'':<ref group="Fig" name="Sib_E" /> "This figure is extraordinarily beautiful owing to the expression of its face, the arrangement of its hair, and the style of its garments, not to mention its bare arms, which are as beautiful as the rest of the body."{{Sfn|Vasari|1991|p=447}}

{{Multiple image
| align =
| direction = vertical
| total_width = 240
| image1 = The Punishment of Haman.png
| caption1 = ''Punishment of Haman'' (east end, left)
| image2 = The Brazen Serpent (1).png
| caption2 = ''The Brazen Serpent'' (east end, right)
| image3 = 'Judith and Holofernes' by Michelangelo JBU31.JPG
| caption3 = ''Judith and Holofernes'' (west end, left)
| image4 = David and Goliath (1).png
| caption4 = ''David and Goliath'' (west end, right)
}}

=== Spandrels ===
In each corner of the chapel is a large triangular doubled spandrel, sometimes referred to less accurately as a pendentive, filling the space between the walls and the arch of the vault and forming a doubled spandrel above the windows nearest the corners. On these curving shapes Michelangelo has painted four scenes from biblical stories that are associated with the salvation of Israel by four great male and female heroes of the [[Jew]]s: Moses, [[Esther]], [[David]] and [[Judith]].<ref name=Paoletti /> The first two stories were both seen in [[Medieval theology#Medieval Christian theology]] and Renaissance theology as prefiguring the Crucifixion of Jesus. The other two stories, those of David and Judith, were often linked in Renaissance art, particularly by Florentine artists as they demonstrated the overthrow of tyrants, a popular subject in the Republic.
* [[Haman|The Punishment of Haman]] – seen to the left when facing east, towards the altar
* [[Nehushtan|The Brazen Serpent]] – seen to the right when facing east, towards the altar
* [[Judith beheading Holofernes|Judith and Holofernes]] – seen to the left when facing west, towards the rear
* [[Goliath|David and Goliath]] – seen to the right when facing west, towards the rear{{sfn|O'Malley|1986|p=134}}

In the [[Book of Esther]], it is related that Haman, a public servant, plots to get Esther's husband, the king of Persia, to slay all the Jewish people in his land. The king, who is going over his books during a sleepless night, realizes something is amiss. Esther, discovering the plot, denounces Haman, and her husband orders his execution on a scaffold he has built. The king's eunuchs promptly carry this out.<ref group="Src">The Book of Esther</ref> Michelangelo shows Haman crucified (instead of hanged as in the original story){{sfn|O'Malley|1986|p=134}} with Esther looking at him from a doorway and the king giving orders in the background.<ref group="Fig">[[:File:Michelangelo Buonarroti 034.jpg|The crucifixion of Haman]] (Before restoration)</ref> The composition shows Haman at the table with Esther, as well as being crucified.<ref name="OM6" /> [[Mordechai]] sits on the steps, linking the scenes.{{sfn|Bartz|König|2013|p=56}}

In the story of the Brazen Serpent, the people of Israel become dissatisfied and grumble at God. As punishment, they receive a plague of venomous snakes. God offers the people relief by instructing Moses to make a snake of brass and set it up on a pole, the sight of which gives miraculous healing.<ref group="Src" name=fiery /> The composition is crowded with figures and separate incidents as the various individuals who have been attacked by snakes struggle and die or turn toward the icon that will save them. This is the most [[Mannerist]] of Michelangelo's earlier compositions at the chapel.<ref name="OM6" />

Writing in the 19th century, English art critic [[John Ruskin]] compares ''The Brazen Serpent''<ref group="Fig">[[:File:Michelangelo Buonarroti 024.jpg|The Brazen Serpent]] (Before restoration)</ref> favourably to the canonical classical statue group ''[[Laocoön and His Sons]]'', which Michelangelo saw upon its discovery in 1506.<ref name=":02">{{Cite book|last=Ruskin|first=John|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7iDlJ7Tt-dQC|title=Modern Painters|publisher=J. Wiley|year=1872|volume=3|location=New York|pages=68–69|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Barkan|first=Leonard|title=Unearthing the Past: Archaeology and Aesthetics in the Making of Renaissance Culture|publisher=Yale University Press|year=1999|isbn=0-300-07677-0|location=New Haven|pages=1–4|oclc=41118690}}</ref> Both works are crowded compositions of figures attacked by supernatural reptiles: the "fiery serpents" of the [[book of Numbers]] and the sea monsters of Virgil's ''[[Aeneid]]''. Ruskin states that he prefers the [[Sublime (philosophy)|sublimity]] expressed by Michelangelo's "gigantic intellect" in "the grandeur of the plague itself, in its multitudinous grasp, and its mystical salvation" and his "awfulness and quietness" to the "meagre lines and contemptible tortures of the Laocoön" and argued that "the grandeur of this treatment results, not merely from choice, but from a greater knowledge and more faithful rendering of truth".<ref name=":02" /> Attacking the sculpture's unnaturalistic snakes as "pieces of tape with heads to them" and criticizing the unrealistic struggle, he praises the painting<ref name=":02" />

{{Blockquote|text=in the rendering of these circumstances; the binding of the arms to the body, and the knotting of the whole mass of agony together, until we hear the crashing of the bones beneath the grisly sliding of the engine folds. Note also the expression in all the figures of another circumstance, the torpor and cold numbness of the limbs induced by the serpent venom, which, though justifiably over-looked by the sculptor of the Laocoön, as well as by Virgil – in consideration of the rapidity of the death by crushing, adds infinitely to the power of the Florentine's conception.}}

''Judith and Holofernes'' depicts the episode in the ''[[Book of Judith]]''. As Judith loads the enemy's head onto a basket carried by her maid and covers it with a cloth, she looks towards the tent,<ref name="OM6" /> apparently distracted by the limbs of the decapitated corpse flailing about.<ref group="Fig">[[:File:Michelangelo Buonarroti 038.jpg|Judith carrying the head of Holofernes]] (Before restoration)</ref> The composition is vertically split, not unlike the ''Punishment of Haman'' at the opposite corner of the chapel.

In ''David and Goliath'', the shepherd boy, David, has brought down the towering Goliath with his [[Sling (weapon)|sling]], but the giant is alive and is trying to rise as David forces his head down to chop it off.<ref name="OM6">{{harvnb|O'Malley|1986|pp=162–169|ps=&nbsp;(captions).}}</ref><ref group="Fig">[[:File:Michelangelo Buonarroti 025.jpg|David slaying Goliath]] (Before restoration)</ref>
''David and Goliath'' is a relatively simple composition, with the two protagonists centrally placed and the only other figures being background observers.

=== Ancestors of Christ ===
{{See also|Gallery of Sistine Chapel ceiling#Ancestors|Tree of Jesse}}

[[File:Jacob a.jpg|thumb|upright=1.4|The lunette of Jacob and his son [[Saint Joseph|Joseph]], the husband of Mary. The suspicious old man is thought to be Jacob,{{sfn|Mancinelli|1986|p=228}} but resembles depictions of Joseph.{{efn|In accordance with [[s:Ante-Nicene Fathers/Volume VIII/Apocrypha of the New Testament/The Protevangelium of James|chapter 9]] of the [[New Testament apocrypha|apocryphal]] [[Gospel of James]], where Joseph says "I am an old man", Renaissance art used to depict him in this way. See also [[The Cherry-Tree Carol]]: "Joseph was an old man, and a bad old man was he, when he wedded Mary in the land of Galilee" (English 15th century). Traditionally, he is often dressed in a blue garment with a yellow cloak, e.g. [[Fra Angelico]]'s ''[[:File:Fra Angelico 013.jpg|Adoration]]''.}}]]
[[File:Ezechias Spandrel.jpg|thumb|upright|Ezekias spandrel]]

Either side of the chapel has six windows, as well as two closed windows at the rear, and two above the altar which were covered by ''The Last Judgment''. Above each window is an arched shape, referred to as a lunette. Above each of the eight most central side lunettes is a triangular spandrel (topped by symmetrical pairs of bronze nudes);{{sfn|O'Malley|1986|p=101}} the other six lunettes are below the corner spandrels, sometimes referred to as pendentives as noted earlier.
These regions link the walls and the ceiling;{{sfn|Mancinelli|1986|p=240}} the figures painted on them are intermediate in size (approximately 2&nbsp;m tall), between the very large prophets on the ceiling and the much smaller papal portraits which had been painted on either side of each window in the 15th century.{{sfn|Mancinelli|1986|p=238}} Michelangelo chose the ancestors of Christ as the subject of these images,{{sfn|O'Malley|1986|pp=170–174}} thus juxtaposing Jesus' physical lineage with the popes, his spiritual successors according to the Church.{{sfn|Graham-Dixon|2008|p=137}}

Centrally placed above each window is a ''faux'' marble tablet with a decorative frame. On each is painted the names of the male line by which Jesus, through his earthly father, Joseph, is descended from Abraham, according to the Gospel of Matthew.<ref group="Src">Gospel of Matthew {{Bibleverse-nb|Matthew|1:16}}</ref>{{efn|The lunettes specifically follow the [[s:Bible (King James)/Matthew#Chapter 1|genealogy according to Matthew]], not the somewhat longer [[s:Bible (King James)/Luke#3:23|genealogy according to Luke]]. Over large stretches, the two genealogies differ, and choosing Matthew's over Luke's has interesting theological implications.}} However, the genealogy is now incomplete, since the two lunettes of the windows in the altar wall were destroyed by Michelangelo when he returned to the chapel in 1537 to paint ''The Last Judgment''.{{sfn|Graham-Dixon|2008|p=138}} Only engravings, based on a drawing that has since been lost, remain of them.<ref group="Fig">The destroyed lunettes: [[:File:Abraham - Isaac - Jacob - Judah.jpg|Abraham / Isaac / Jacob / Judah]] and [[:File:Perez - Hezron - Ram.jpg|Pharez / Hezron / Ram]], engravings by [[William Young Ottley]].</ref> The sequence of tablets seems somewhat erratic as one plaque has four names, most have three or two, and two plaques have only one. Moreover, the progression moves from one side of the building to the other, but not consistently, and the figures the lunettes contain do not coincide closely with the listed names. These figures vaguely suggest various family relationships; most lunettes contain one or more infants, and many depict a man and a woman, often sitting on opposing sides of the painted plaque that separates them. O'Malley describes them as "simply representative figures, almost ciphers".{{sfn|O'Malley|1986|pp=170–174}}

The figures in the lunettes appear to be families, but in every case they are families that are divided. The figures in them are physically divided by the name tablet but they are also divided by a range of human emotions that turn them outward or in on themselves and sometimes towards their partner with jealousy, suspicion, rage or simply boredom. In them Michelangelo has portrayed the anger and unhappiness of the human condition, painting, in [[Andrew Graham-Dixon]]'s words, "the daily round of merely domestic life as if it were a curse".{{sfn|Graham-Dixon|2008|p=141}} In their constraining niches, Gabriele Bartz and Eberhard König say, the ancestors "sit, squat and wait".{{sfn|Bartz|König|2013|p=44}} Of the 14 lunettes, the two that were probably painted first,{{sfn|Mancinelli|1986|p=226}} the families of Eleazar<!---NOTE- Do not link this Eleazer. He is NOT FAMOUS---> and Mathan<ref group="Fig">[[:File:Michelangelo - Sistine Chapel - Lunette Eleazar and Mathan - WGA.jpg|Eleazar and Mathan]] lunette (before restoration)</ref>{{efn|Mancinelli notes that [[:File:Michelangelo - Sistine Chapel - Lunette Eleazar - detail Eleazar with wife.jpg|Eleazar]] is executed similarly to the ''ignudi''.{{sfn|Mancinelli|1986|p=226}}}} and of Jacob<!---NOTE- Do not link this Jacob. He is NOT FAMOUS---> and his son Joseph, are the most detailed. They become progressively broader towards the altar end, as Michelangelo painted faster and more furiously.{{sfn|Mancinelli|1986|p=254}}

Because of the constraints of the triangular shape, in each spandrel the figures are seated on the ground. Six include groups of figures, mostly adults with a child. Of the two remaining, one shows a woman with shears trimming the neck of a garment she is making while her toddler looks on.<ref group="Fig">[[:File:Salmon Spandrel.jpg|Woman cutting garment]], the "Salmon Spandrel" (restored)</ref> The biblical woman who is recorded as making a new garment for her child is [[Hannah (Bible)|Hannah]], the mother of [[Samuel (Bible)|Samuel]], whose child went to live in the temple; the male figure in the background is wearing a distinctive hat that might suggest that of a priest.<ref group="Src">First Book of [[1 Samuel|Samuel]], chapter 2:18</ref> Another female figure sits staring out of the picture.<ref group="Fig" name=":0">Woman looking from a spandrel [[:File:Michelangelo Buonarroti 037.jpg|before]] and [[:File:Jesse Spandrel.jpg|after]] restoration</ref>

In the restoration process, the figure of [[Amminadab]] was shown to be wearing a contemporary [[Jewish badge]], the wearing of which was being rigorously enforced at the time. Depictions normally occur in a pejorative context, and seem to link this figure from the Jewish past to the Renaissance present. In this case, it appears to place Amminadab as permanently exiled from salvation.{{sfn|Wisch|2003|p=164-6}}

Prior to restoration, of all the paintings in the chapel, the lunettes and spandrels were the dirtiest.{{sfn|Mancinelli|1986|pp=234–236}} Added to this, there has always been a problem of poor daytime visibility of the panels nearest the windows because of ''halination'', the effect of bright areas blurring over less bright ones.{{citation needed|date=March 2020}}

=== ''Ignudi'' ===
{{See also|Gallery of Sistine Chapel ceiling#Ignudi}}
[[File:'Ignudo' by Michelangelo JBU33.jpg|thumb|left|upright|An ''ignudo'' commonly reproduced by other artists]]

The ''ignudi''{{efn|Singular: ''Ignudo''; from the Italian adjective ''nudo'', meaning "naked"}} are the 20 athletic, nude males that Michelangelo painted as supporting figures at each corner of the five smaller creation scenes on the ceiling, each pair enclosing a medallion supported by ribands above the ''Prophets'' and ''Sibyls''.{{sfn|O'Malley|1986|p=97}} The figures hold, are draped with, or lean on items like ribbons, pillows, and large garlands of acorns,{{efn|name="Rovere"}}
in widely varying postures.{{sfn|O'Malley|1986|p=97}} Mostly decorative, they provided Michelangelo a prime opportunity to express himself.{{sfn|O'Malley|1986|p=101}} The poses were copied by other Renaissance artists, including [[Bartolommeo Bandinelli]] and the workshop of Raphael (for ''[[The Baptism of Constantine]]'').{{sfn|Hersey|1993|pp=58-59, 170-171}}

Some have suggested that the ''ignudi'' could represent [[angel]]s, similar to [[cherub]]s.{{sfn|O'Malley|1986|pp=100, 104}}{{sfn|Hersey|1993|pp=197-198}}{{Efn|Michelangelo later included over forty angels in ''The Last Judgment'', which it has been claimed resemble the ''ignudi''.{{citation needed|date=May 2022}}}} O'Malley compares them to sculptures of [[Atlas (mythology)|Atlas]] or Michelangelo's ''Slaves'' from Julius II's tomb.{{sfn|O'Malley|1986|p=101}} In their reflection of classical antiquity they resonate with Pope Julius's aspirations to lead Italy towards a new 'age of gold'; at the same time, they staked Michelangelo's claim to greatness.{{sfn|Graham-Dixon|2008|p=136}} Contrarily, a number of critics were angered by their presence and nudity, including [[Pope Adrian&nbsp;VI]].{{sfn|Hersey|1993|p=25}}{{clear left}}

== Stylistic analysis and artistic legacy ==
{{gallery|mode=packed
|title=Possible influences on Michelangelo for the ceiling
|Monreale creation earth.jpg|''Creation of the Sun, Moon, and Stars'' mosaic (12th&nbsp;century), [[Monreale Cathedral]]
|Monreale creation Adam.jpg|''Creation of Adam'' mosaic, Monreale Cathedral
|Monreale creation Eva.jpg|''Creation of Eve'', Monreale Cathedral
|Jacopo della quercia, 02.creazione di eva.jpg|''Creation of Eve'' relief, [[Jacopo della Quercia]] (c.&nbsp;1374–1438), [[Bologna Cathedral]]
|Creation-and-the-expulsion-from-the-paradise-11291.jpg|''Creation and Expulsion from Paradise'' (1445), [[Giovanni di Paolo]]
}}

Michelangelo was the artistic heir to the great 15th-century sculptors and painters of Florence. He learned his trade first under the direction of a masterly fresco painter, Domenico Ghirlandaio, known for two great fresco cycles in the [[Sassetti Chapel]] and [[Tornabuoni Chapel]], and for his contribution to the cycle of paintings on the walls of the Sistine Chapel. As a student Michelangelo studied and drew from the works of some of the most renowned Florentine fresco painters of the early Renaissance, including Giotto and perhaps [[Masaccio]].{{Sfn|Gardner|1970|pp=392, 467}} Masaccio's figures of Adam and Eve being expelled from the Garden of Eden had a profound effect on the depiction of the nude in general, and in particular on its use to convey human feeling.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Knight |first=Christopher |date=November 10, 2018 |title=Review: In 'The Renaissance Nude,' bare skin speaks with startling eloquence |url=https://www.nydailynews.com/la-et-cm-renaissance-nude-20181108-htmlstory.html |access-date=2022-07-22 |website=[[New York Daily News]]}}</ref><ref group="Fig">Masaccio: [[:File:Masaccio expulsion-1427.jpg|The Expulsion from the Garden of Eden]] fresco, {{convert|208|x|88|cm|0|abbr=on}} Cappella Brancacci, Santa Maria del Carmine, Florence</ref> [[Helen Gardner (art historian)|Helen Gardner]] says that in the hands of Michelangelo, "the body is simply the manifestation of the soul, or of a state of mind and character."{{Sfn|Gardner|1970|p=471}}

Michelangelo was also almost certainly influenced by the paintings of Luca Signorelli,{{Sfn|Gardner|1970|p=444}} whose paintings, particularly the ''Death and Resurrection Cycle'' in [[Orvieto Cathedral]], contain a great number of nudes and inventive figurative compositions.<ref group="Fig">Luca Signorelli: [[:File:Signorelli Resurrection.jpg|Resurrection of the Flesh]] (1499–1502) Chapel of San Brizio, Duomo, Orvieto</ref> In Bologna, Michelangelo saw the relief sculptures of Jacopo della Quercia around the ''Porta Magna'' of the [[San Petronio Basilica|minor basilica]]. In Michelangelo's depiction of the ''Creation of Eve'' the whole composition, the form of the figures and the relatively conservative concept of the relationship between Eve and her Creator adheres closely to Jacopo's design.{{sfn|Bartz|König|2013|p=54}} Other panels on the ceiling, most particularly the iconic ''Creation of Adam'' show what Bartz and König call "unprecedented invention";{{sfn|Bartz|König|2013|p=54}} the pair call the ceiling in general "an artistic vision without precedent".{{sfn|Bartz|König|2013|p=38}}

[[File:Raffaello, profeta isaia.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Raphael]]'s ''[[The Prophet Isaiah (Raphael)|The Prophet Isaiah]]'', painted in imitation of Michelangelo's prophets]]

Older depictions of the creation scenes had depicted God as mostly immobile, [[God the Father in Western art|a&nbsp;static, enthroned image]] whose activity was indicated by a gesture of the hand, as in the creation scenes of the medieval Byzantine-style mosaics of [[Monreale Cathedral]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Boitani|first=Piero|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TdSgDAAAQBAJ|title=Interpreting Scriptures in Judaism, Christianity and Islam: Overlapping Inquiries|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2016|isbn=978-1-316-54616-1|editor-last=Cohen|editor-first=Mordechai Z.|pages=97–99|language=en|chapter=The unmoved mover begins to move: literary and artistic renderings of the Christian Bible|editor-last2=Berlin|editor-first2=Adele}}</ref> Michelangelo, influenced by the [[Paradiso (Dante)|''Paradiso'']] of [[Dante Alighieri]], shows God in full-bodied movement, an innovation [[Giovanni di Paolo]] had made in his ''Creation and Expulsion from Paradise.'' [[Paolo Uccello]] also had shown some movement in his scene of the creation of Adam and Eve in the [[cloister]] of Santa Maria Novella.<ref name=":4">{{Cite book|last=Boitani|first=Piero|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TdSgDAAAQBAJ|title=Interpreting Scriptures in Judaism, Christianity and Islam: Overlapping Inquiries|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2016|isbn=978-1-316-54616-1|editor-last=Cohen|editor-first=Mordechai Z.|pages=106–112|language=en|chapter=The unmoved mover begins to move: literary and artistic renderings of the Christian Bible|editor-last2=Berlin|editor-first2=Adele}}</ref> In di Paolo's painting, as in Michelangelo's fresco, God is accompanied and apparently carried aloft by attendant ''putti''.<ref name=":4" /> Raphael employed movement somewhat more in his contemporary ''The Prime Mover'', next door to the Sistine Chapel in the [[Stanza della segnatura|s''tanza della segnatura'']] and painted 1509–11; Perugino's slightly earlier ''Creator'' in fresco'','' in the room named for Raphael's [[The Fire in the Borgo|''Incendio del Borgo'']], shows a seated, static divinity.<ref name=":4" />

The Sistine Chapel ceiling was to have a profound effect upon other artists, even before it was completed. Vasari, in his "Life of Raphael", tells us that Bramante, who had the keys to the chapel, let Raphael in to examine the paintings in Michelangelo's absence; on seeing Michelangelo's prophets, Raphael went back to the picture of Isaiah that he was painting on a column in the [[Sant'Agostino, Rome|Church of Sant'Agostino]] and, although it was finished, he scraped it off the wall and repainted it in a much more powerful manner in imitation of Michelangelo.{{Sfn|Vasari|1991|p=318}} O'Malley points out that even earlier than the ''Isaiah'' is Raphael's inclusion of the figure of [[Heraclitus]] in the ''[[School of Athens]]'', a brooding figure similar to Michelangelo's ''Jeremiah'', but with the countenance of Michelangelo himself, and leaning on a block of marble.{{sfn|O'Malley|1986|pp=156–158}}<ref group="Fig">Raphael (c. 1509) [[:File:Raphael School of Athens Michelangelo.jpg|Heraclitus detail]] from the [[School of Athens]], a portrait of Michelangelo</ref>
Bartz and König state of the ''ignudi'', "There is no image that has had a more lasting effect on following generations than this. Henceforth similar figures disported themselves in innumerable decorative works, be they painted, formed in stucco or even sculpted."{{sfn|Bartz|König|2013|pp=45, 52}}<!---NOTE: The gap in page count is accurate; the short quote is divided by several pages of illustrations.--->

In January 2007, it was claimed that as many as 10,000 visitors passed through the [[Vatican Museums]] in a day, double the quantity of the previous decade.<ref name=":11">{{Cite web |last=Owen |first=Richard |date=January 6, 2007 |title=Vatican puts a squeeze on visitors |url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article1289890.ece |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070512203242/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article1289890.ece |archive-date=2007-05-12 |access-date=2022-05-15 |website=[[The Times]]}}</ref>

== Damage and restoration ==
{{Main|Restoration of the Sistine Chapel frescoes}}

The ceiling had suffered a degree of damage as early as the mid-16th century. In 1797, a gunpowder explosion in the [[Castel Sant'Angelo]] damaged part of the ''Flood'' fresco and one of the ''ignudi'' (the latter being preserved by a drawing by a pupil of Michelangelo).<ref name="Gold" /><ref>{{Cite web |title=Drunkenness of Noah (with ignudi and medallions) by MICHELANGELO Buonarroti |url=https://www.wga.hu/html_m/m/michelan/3sistina/1genesis/1drunken/01_2ce1f.html |access-date=2022-06-29 |website=[[Web Gallery of Art]]}}</ref>

Over the centuries after the ceiling's painting, it became so aged by candle smoke and layers of [[varnish]] as to significantly mute the original colours.{{sfn|Mancinelli|1986|p=218}}<ref name="gardners9th" /> Some restorations took place in the early and mid-20th century.<ref name="Gold" /> After preliminary tests taking place in 1979, the ceiling was restored between 1980 and 1992.<ref name="gardners9th">{{cite book |last1=De La Croix |first1=Horst |last2=Tansey |first2=Richard G. |last3=Kirkpatrick |first3=Diane |title=Gardner's Art Through the Ages |year=1991 |publisher=Harcourt Brace Jovanovich |isbn=0-15-503769-2 |pages=655–657 |edition=9th |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mYPuAAAAMAAJ}}</ref>
The first stage of restoration, the work upon Michelangelo's lunettes, was performed between June 1980 and October 1984.{{sfn|Pietrangeli|1994|p=6}} The work then proceeded to the ceiling, completed on 31 December 1989, and from there to ''The Last Judgment''.{{sfn|Pietrangeli|1994|p=7}} The restoration was unveiled by [[Pope John Paul&nbsp;II]] on 8 April 1994.<ref name=PJPII>{{cite web|url=https://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/homilies/1994/documents/hf_jp-ii_hom_19940408_restauri-sistina_en.html|title=Homily of His Holiness John Paul II, 8 April 1994|last=John Paul II| year=1994|work=Homily preached at the mass of to celebrate the unveiling of the restorations of Michelangelo's frescoes in the Sistine Chapel|publisher=[[Vatican Publishing House]] |access-date=6 April 2009}}</ref>

The restoration of the ceiling was directed by Fabrizio Mancinelli and performed by [[Gianluigi Colalucci]], Maurizio Rossi, Pier Giorgio Bonetti, and Bruno Baratti.{{sfn|Pietrangeli|1994|p=6}}
The restoration has removed the filter of grime to reveal colours closer to the paintings at the time of their completion.{{sfn|Pietrangeli|1994|p=6}} The ceiling now appears to depict daytime scenes and a springlike atmosphere with bright saturated colours.{{efn|Sources showing the work before the restoration was complete feature colours which are more saturated than they are in the final product.<ref name=gardners9th />}} The restoration was met with both praise and criticism. Critics assert that much original work by Michelangelo – in particular [[pentimenti]], highlights and shadows, and other detailing painted ''a&nbsp;secco'' – was lost in the removal of various accretions.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Beck|first1=James|author-link=James Beck (art historian)|last2=Daley|first2=Michael|year=1993|title=Art Restoration: The Culture, the Business and the Scandal|url=https://archive.org/details/artrestorationcu0000beck/page/168/|publisher=W.W. Norton|isbn=0-7195-4635-4|pages=168, 189–190}}</ref><ref name=":0" group="Fig" />

In 2007, the Vatican, anxious at the possibility that the newly restored frescoes would suffer damage, announced plans to reduce visiting hours and raise the price in an attempt to discourage visitors.<ref name=":11" />

== Quotations ==
{{blockquote|text=This work has been and truly is the beacon of our art, and it has brought such benefit and enlightenment to the art of painting that it was sufficient to illuminate a world which for so many hundreds of years had remained in the state of darkness. And, to tell the truth, anyone who is a painter no longer needs to concern himself about seeing innovations and inventions, new ways of painting poses, clothing on figures, and various awe-inspiring details, for Michelangelo gave to this work all the perfection that can be given to such details.{{Sfn|Vasari|1991|pp=443–44}}|author=Vasari|source="Life of Michelangelo"}}

{{blockquote|text=Without having seen the Sistine Chapel one can form no appreciable idea of what one man is capable of achieving.| sign= [[Johann Wolfgang Goethe]], 23 August 1787<ref>Letter. Original: {{in lang|de}} ''Ich kann euch nicht ausdrücken, wie sehr ich euch zu mir gewünscht habe, damit ihr nur einen Begriff hättet, was ein einziger und ganzer Mensch machen und ausrichten kann; ohne die Sixtinische Kapelle gesehen zu haben, kann man sich keinen anschauenden Begriff machen, was ein Mensch vermag.'' [[Italian Journey]], 2nd journey to Rome.<sup>[https://www.fulltextarchive.com/page/Italienische-Reise-Teil-21/#p195 Italienische Reise, Teil 21] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200713125644/https://www.fulltextarchive.com/page/Italienische-Reise-Teil-21/#p195 |date=13 July 2020 }}</sup></ref>
}}

{{blockquote|text=It seems that Michelangelo, in his own way, allowed himself to be guided by the evocative words of the Book of Genesis which, as regards the creation of the human being, male and female, reveals: "The man and his wife were both naked, yet they felt no shame". The Sistine Chapel is precisely – if one may say so – the sanctuary of the theology of the human body. In witnessing to the beauty of man created by God as male and female, it also expresses in a certain way, the hope of a world transfigured, the world inaugurated by the Risen Christ.<ref name=PJPII />|author=Pope John Paul II}}

{{blockquote|text=In a world where all experience was based in the glorious lost past of Antiquity, he made a new beginning. Michelangelo, more even than Raphael or Leonardo, embodies a standard of artistic genius which reveals a radically changed image of human beings and their potential&nbsp;...{{sfn|Bartz|König|2013|p=6}}|author=Gabriele Bartz and [[Eberhard König (art historian)|Eberhard König]]}}

The art critic and television producer [[Waldemar Januszczak]] wrote that when the Sistine Chapel ceiling was recently cleaned, he "was able to persuade the man at the Vatican who was in charge of Japanese TV access to let me climb the scaffold while the cleaning was in progress."

<blockquote>I sneaked up there a few times. And under the bright, unforgiving lights of television, I was able to encounter the real Michelangelo. I was so close to him I could see the bristles from his brushes caught in the paint; and the mucky thumbprints he'd left along his margins. The first thing that impressed me was his speed. Michelangelo worked at [[Michael Schumacher|Schumacher]] pace. ... I also enjoyed his sense of humour, which, from close up, turned out to be refreshingly puerile. If you look closely at the angels who attend the scary prophetess on the Sistine ceiling known as the Cumaean Sibyl, you will see that one of them has stuck his thumb between his fingers in that [[Fig sign|mysteriously obscene gesture]] that visiting fans are still treated to today at Italian football matches.<ref>{{cite news |last=Januszczak |first=Waldemar |author-link=Waldemar Januszczak |title=The Michelangelo code |url=https://www.thetimes.com/culture/tv-radio/article/the-michelangelo-code-rjwc5hcqmvn |newspaper=[[The Sunday Times]] |location=London |date=5 March 2006 |access-date=30 April 2019}}</ref></blockquote>

== See also ==
* [[List of works by Michelangelo]]
* [[Index of Vatican City–related articles]]
*''[[The Agony and the Ecstasy (film)|The Agony and the Ecstasy]]''

== Notes ==
{{notelist}}

== References ==
{{reflist|22em}}

=== Reference images ===
{{reflist|25em|group="Fig"}}

=== Biblical sources ===
<small>Unless stated otherwise, sourced from [[s:Bible (King James)|The Holy Bible]], [[King James Version]].</small>
{{reflist|25em|group="Src"}}

=== Bibliography ===
{{refbegin|30em}}
* {{cite book |last1=Bartz |first1=Gabriele |last2=König |first2=Eberhard |year=2013 |orig-date=1998 |title=Masters of Italian Art: Michelangelo |url=https://archive.org/details/michelangelo0000bart/ |publisher=H.F. Ullmann |location=Köln |isbn=978-3-8480-0557-4}}
*{{Cite web |last=Campbell |first=Paul E. |date=1949 |title="Library : Dies Irae, Masterpiece of Latin Poetry." Library |url=https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?recnum=7527. }}
* {{Cite book |last=Condivi |first=Ascanio |author-link=Ascanio Condivi |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sWNZ7njz2MkC&pg=PA57 |title=The Life of Michelangelo |publisher=[[Penn State Press]] |year=1999 |isbn=978-0-271-04483-5 |editor-last=Wohl |editor-first=Hellmut |language=en |translator-last=Wohl |translator-first=Alice Sedgwick}}
* {{cite book |last=Gardner |first=Helen |author-link=Helen Gardner (art historian) |year=1970 |title=Art Through the Ages |url=https://archive.org/details/gardnersartthro000gard |edition=5th |publisher=Harcourt, Brace and World |isbn=978-0-15-508315-8}}
* Giacometti, Massimo, ed. (1986). ''[https://archive.org/details/sistinechapelart0000unse The Sistine Chapel: The Art, the History, and the Restoration]'', by Carlo Pietrangeli, [[André Chastel]], John Shearman, John O'Malley S.J., Pierluigi de Vecchi, [[Michael Hirst (art historian)|Michael Hirst]], Fabrizio Mancinelli, [[Gianluigi Colalucci]], and Franco Bernabei. New York: [[Harmony Books]]. {{ISBN|0-517-56274-X}}
** {{cite book |last=Shearman |first=John |author-link=John Shearman |year=1986 |title=''"The Chapel of Sixtus IV"'' |url=https://archive.org/details/sistinechapelart0000unse/page/22 |pages=22–91 |publisher=Harmony Books |isbn=978-0-517-56274-1}}
** {{cite book |last=O'Malley |first=John |author-link=John W. O'Malley |year=1986 |title=''"The Theology Behind Michelangelo's Ceiling"'' |url=https://archive.org/details/sistinechapelart0000unse/page/92 |pages=92–148 |publisher=Harmony Books |isbn=978-0-517-56274-1}}
** {{cite book |last=Mancinelli |first=Fabrizio |year=1986 |title=''"Michelangelo at Work: The Painting of the Ceiling"'' |url=https://archive.org/details/sistinechapelart0000unse/page/218 |pages=218–259 |publisher=Harmony Books |isbn=978-0-517-56274-1}}
* {{cite book |last=Graham-Dixon |first=Andrew |author-link=Andrew Graham-Dixon |title=Michelangelo and the Sistine Chapel |url=https://archive.org/details/michelangelosist0000grah/ |publisher=Weidenfeld & Nicolson |location=London |year=2008 |isbn=978-0-297-85365-7}}
* {{Cite book |last=Hersey |first=George L. |author-link=George L. Hersey |year=1993 |title=High Renaissance Art in St. Peter's and the Vatican |url=https://archive.org/details/highrenaissancea0000hers/ |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=0-226-32782-5}}
*[[Ross King (author)|King, Ross]], ''Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling'', 2002, Chatto & Windus, ISBN 071171197
*{{Cite book |last=Lactanitius |url=https://archive.org/details/lactantiusdivine0000lact/page/4/mode/2up?q=sibyl. |title=Divine Institutes |year=2003 |orig-year=c.240-c.320 |publisher=Liverpool University Press | isbn=978-0-85323-988-8 }}
*{{Cite journal |last=Nicholson |first=Melanie |title=From Sibyl to Witch and beyond: Feminine Archetype in the Poetry of Olga Orozco. |issue=1 |journal=Chasqui |volume=27 |edition=vol. 27, no. 1 |publication-date=1998 |pages=11–22 |doi=10.2307/29741396|jstor=29741396 }}
* {{Cite book |last=Paris |first=Yvonne |title=Michelangelo: 1475–1564 |publisher=Parragon |year=2009 |isbn=978-1-4075-4271-3 |location=Bath |translator-last=Leighton |translator-first=Sophie |oclc=362400828}}
* {{cite book |last=Partridge |first=Loren |title=Michelangelo. The Sistine Chapel Ceiling, Rome |publisher=George Braziller |location=New York |year=1996 |isbn=0-8076-1315-0}}
* {{Cite book |last=Pfisterer |first=Ulrich |author-link=Ulrich Pfisterer (art historian) |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CnFlDwAAQBAJ |title=The Sistine Chapel: Paradise in Rome |year=2018 |publisher=[[Getty Publications]] |isbn=978-1-60606-553-2 |location=Los Angeles |language=en}}
* {{Cite book |last=Vasari |first=Giorgio |author-link=Giorgio Vasari |url=https://archive.org/details/livesofartists0000vasa_k5j0 |title=The Lives of the Artists |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1991 |orig-date=1568 |isbn=0-19-283410-X |series=Oxford World's Classics |language=en |translator-last=Bondanella |translator-first=Peter |translator-last2=Bondanella |translator-first2=Julia Conway}}
* Vecchi, Pierluigi de (1994). ''[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780810938403/ The Sistine Chapel: A Glorious Restoration]'', by Carlo Pietrangeli, Michael Hirst, Gianluigi Colalucci, Fabrizio Mancinelli, John Shearman, Matthias Winner, Edward Maeder, Pierluigi de Vecchi, Nazzareno Gabrielli, and Piernicola Pagliara. New York: [[Harry N. Abrams]]. {{ISBN|0-8109-3840-5}}
** {{cite book |last=Pietrangeli |first=Carlo |year=1994 |title=''"Introduction: An Account of the Restoration"'' |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780810938403/page/n5/ |pages=6–7 |isbn=978-0-8109-3840-3}}
* {{cite journal |title=Vested Interest: Redressing Jews on Michelangelo's Sistine Ceiling |first1=Barbara |last1=Wisch |journal=Artibus et Historiae |volume=24 |number=48 |year=2003 |pages=143–172 |publisher=IRSA |doi=10.2307/1483735 |jstor=1483735}}
{{refend}}

== Further reading ==
{{refbegin}}
* {{Citation |last1=Efetov |first1=Konstantin |title=A shocking secret of the Sistine Chapel |publisher=CSMU Press |location=Simferopol |year=2006 |isbn=966-2969-17-9 |author-link=Konstantin Efetov |url=http://efetov.wordpress.com/}}
* Freidenthal, Richard (1963). ''Letters of the Great Artists'', 1963, Thames and Hudson
* [[John Rigby Hale|Hale, J. R.]] (1979). ''Renaissance Europe, 1480–1520'', Fontana/Collins. {{ISBN|0-00-632435-5}}
* Hartt, Frederick and David G. Wilkins (2007). "Michelangelo 1505–1516". ''History of Italian Renaissance Art'' (7th ed.). Pearson Education, Inc. pp.&nbsp;496–512. {{ISBN|978-0-205-70581-8}}.
{{refend}}

== External links ==
{{commons and category}}
* [http://mv.vatican.va/3_EN/pages/CSN/CSN_Volta.html Vatican Museum]
** [http://www.museivaticani.va/content/museivaticani/en/collezioni/musei/cappella-sistina/tour-virtuale.html 3-D interior view]
* [http://beckydaroff.com/arthistory/scc/ Visual/Interactive Tour of the Sistine Chapel Ceiling and upper walls, with identifications and detail images]
* [http://smarthistory.khanacademy.org/sistine-chapel-ceiling.html Michelangelo's Ceiling of the Sistine Chapel], [[Smarthistory]] video (22:03)
* [http://www.michelangelomodels.com/ Models of wax and clay used by Michelangelo in making his sculpture and paintings]
* [https://www.michelangelo.org/sistine-chapel-ceiling.jsp Sistine Chapel Panoramas View]
* [http://issuu.com/akenpapers/docs/sistine The Sistine Ceiling and the Holy Spirit]

{{Michelangelo|painting}}
{{High Renaissance}}
{{Sistine Chapel}}
{{Vatican City topics}}
{{Sequence
| prev = [[Raphael Rooms]]
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| next = [[Aurelian Walls]]
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[[Category:Sistine Chapel ceiling| ]]
[[Category:1512 paintings]]
[[Category:Religious paintings by Michelangelo]]
[[category:Nude paintings of men]]
[[Category:Nude paintings of women]]
[[Category:Paintings of sibyls]]
[[Category:Paintings of Hebrew Bible prophets]]

{{Section link|de:Sixtinische Kapelle#Deckengemälde}}