FACTS ABOUT THE CEILING OF THE SISTINE CHAPEL

1. In 1508, Pope Julius II convinced Michelangelo to stop work on his tomb and paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.  The building is the chapel in the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican.  The ceiling was originally painted sky blue with gold stars.  Michelangelo did not want the job.  He considered himself a sculptor, not a painter.  He had never painted a fresco before.  He accepted the commission reluctantly and his working relationship with Julius was tense.

2. It took four years to complete. It was opened to the public on Nov. 1, 1512.

3. The ceiling is 12,000 square feet. Michelangelo filled it with over 300 figures.  He did not paint them laying down.  That myth was mainly due to Charlton Heston’s depiction of Michelangelo in the movie “The Agony and the Ecstasy” (1956).  He designed the scaffolding himself.

4. The Pope suggested l2 large figures of the Apostles, but Michelangelo insisted on having control of what he painted. He decided to go with scenes from the Book of Genesis for the main part of the ceiling.  Here are the nine scenes from back to altar:

                –  Noah is drunk and disgraced

                –  The Great Flood

                –  Noah makes a sacrifice after the Flood

                –  Adam and Eve are tempted and evicted

                –  God creates Eve

                –   God creates Adam

                –  God divides the water from the land

                –  God creates the sun and the planets

                –  God creates light from darkness

5. The most famous scene is God creating Adam. Michelangelo’s God created our image of him as an old, bearded man.  It is theorized that the background for God is a brain, indicating the gift of intelligence.

6. The ceiling held up extremely well over the centuries with the small exception of a panel showing Noah escaping from the Flood which fell due to a gunpowder explosion at a nearby depot in 1797.

7. The ceiling underwent renovation from 1980-1999 to remove soot and grime. It also removed fig leaves and loin cloths added under the prudish instructions of Pope Pius IV in the 1560’s.

https://www.history.com/news/7-things-you-may-not-know-about-the-sistine-chapel

https://graylinerome.com/blog/15-fascinating-facts-about-sistine-chapel/

https://www.incredibleart.org/links/sistine-chapel.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sistine_Chapel_ceiling