The walls of the Sistine Chapel had been decorated 20 years before Michelangelo's work on the ceiling. Following this, Raphael designed a set of tapestries (1515–1516) to cover the lowest of three levels; the surviving tapestries … See more

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 … See more

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 See more

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. While … See more

The Sistine Chapel is about 35 m (118 ft) long and 14 m (46 ft) wide, with the ceiling rising to about 20 m (66 ft) above the main floor. The vault is of quite a complex design and it is unlikely that it was originally intended to have such elaborate decoration. See more

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 … See more

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 … See more