Introducing
Your new presentation assistant.
Refine, enhance, and tailor your content, source relevant images, and edit visuals quicker than ever before.
Trending searches
Sistine Chapel
by
Michelangelo
Due to the scaffolding, At no point could Michelangelo look at the work in progress from below, but he was still able to paint images on a vast scale from a distance of a few inches.
The election of a new pope has been held in the Sistine Chapel, with other locations, since 1492, but as the sole venue only since 1870.
For such an important building the Sistine Chapel is remarkably plain outside – a high, block-like rectangular brick building without adornment. It has no grand façade and no processional entrance door: all entry points are internal, from other parts of the Papal Palace.
How Long Did it Take Michelangelo to Paint These?
It took him a bit over four years, from July of 1508 to October of 1512. Michelangelo got off to a slow start, not having painted frescoes before.
However, ultimately it wasn't Michelangelo's fault that the ceiling took four years. (Once he got the hang of things, he painted like a man on fire!) The work suffered numerous setbacks, such as mold and miserable, damp weather that disallowed plaster curing.
Some 25,000 people a day, or five million people a year, visit the chapel.
Did Michelangelo Really Paint Lying on His Back?
No. Charlton Heston did in the movie, but the real Michelangelo didn't lay on his back to paint the ceiling. He constructed a unique scaffolding system. It was sturdy enough to hold workers and materials, but began high up the walls of the chapel in order that Mass might still be celebrated below.
The scaffolding curved at its top, mimicking the curvature of the ceiling's vault. Michelangelo often had to bend backwards and paint over his head -- an awkward position which must've made his neck and back ache, his arms burn painfully and, according to him, permanently screwed up his vision. But he wasn't lying flat on his back.
Did He Actually Paint These Frescoes All by Himself?
Michelangelo gets, and deserves, credit for the entire project. The complete design was his. The sketches for the frescoes were all of his hand, and Michelangelo executed the bulk of the actual painting by himself.
But! The vision of him toiling away, a solitary figure in a vacant chapel, isn't accurate. He needed many assistants, if only to mix his paints, scramble up and down ladders, and prepare the day's plaster (a nasty business). Occasionally, a talented assistant might be entrusted with a patch of sky, a bit of landscape, or a figure so small and minor it is barely noticable. And clever, temperamental Michelangelo hired and fired these assistants on such a regular basis that none of them could claim credit for any part of the ceiling.