The
Sistine Chapel ceiling, painted by
Michelangelo between 1508 and 1512, is one of the most renowned artworks of the
High Renaissance. The ceiling is that of the large
Sistine Chapel built within the
Vatican by
Pope Sixtus IV, begun in 1477 and finished by 1480. The chapel is the Papal Chapel within the Vatican, and is the location for
Papal Conclaves and many important services.
The ceiling's various painted elements comprise part of a larger scheme of decoration within the Sistine Chapel which includes the large fresco of The Last Judgment on the sanctuary wall, also by Michelangelo, wall paintings by a team of the most highly regarded painters of the late 15th century including Botticelli and Perugino, and a set of large tapestries by Raphael, the whole illustrating much of the doctrine of the Catholic Church.[1][2] (Main articleSistine Chapel)
Central to the ceiling decoration are nine scenes from the Book of Genesis of which the Creation of Adam is the best known, having an iconic standing equalled only by Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa, the hands of God and Adam being reproduced in countless imitations.[3]
In 1506 Pope Julius II conceived a program to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.[4] Around the central area of the walls of the chapel there already existed a complex scheme of paintings illustrating the Life of Christ and the Life of Moses. It had been carried out by some of the most renowned Renaissance painters, Perugino, Botticelli, Ghirlandaio, Pintoricchio and Cosimo Rosselli.[1]
