Sistine Chapel Ceiling

Sistine Chapel Ceiling

View: Detail, the prophet Isaiah

cycles or series; Old Testament and Apocrypha; Julius II, Pope, 1443-1513; nudes; youth; Biblical narratives; Papal chapel; prophets

In the final scheme the vault was given a fictive stone framework, with a series of nine narratives from the book of Genesis in the centre, each placed at right angles to the long axis of the chapel. Figures of nude youths (the famous ignudi) sit on the simulated architecture framing these narratives. In the spandrels at both ends and down the sides of the chapel are colossal enthroned figures, each labelled as a prophet or sibyl. Between these, and in the lunettes above the windows beneath, are family groups and paired figures of the Ancestors of Christ. At the four corners, the pendentives are painted with scenes illustrating the salvation of Israel.

Michelangelo Buonarroti (Italian painter, 1475-1564)

Description: Grove Art Online; http://www.oxfordartonline.com/

1508-1512 (creation)

publicDomain

part of Sistine Chapel

pigment on plaster

12,000 ft2 (area)

fresco (painting)

mich206x.jpg

Sistine Chapel (Rome (Vatican City), Santa Sede (Holy See), Italy); Palace of the Vatican

Renaissance