Did you know that one of the most famous paintings in the world hangs upside down? The painting is really a set of smaller paintings or scenes that tell stories from the Bible. The artist and sculptor Michelangelo painted the stories on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Vatican City, Italy. A painting on a wall or ceiling is called a “fresco”.
The Sistine Chapel is important for people of the Catholic faith. It is here that their religious leader, the Pope, is elected. It is also the place where the Pope prays in private. More than five million people visit the Sistine Chapel every year.
Pictures tell the story
The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel is high and long. The area is around 12,000 square feet. Down the centre of the ceiling, Michelangelo painted nine scenes from the Bible. The first three paintings tell the story of the creation of the heavens and earth. The next three, tell about the creation of the first people, Adam and Eve, and how they were sent away from the Garden of Eden. The last three paintings tell the story of Noah and the Great Flood.
The most famous scene of these is The Creation of Adam. God is painted as an old man with a flowing grey beard. In the centre of the painting, God and Adam reach out to one other. The rest of the ceiling is also covered in paintings by Michelangelo. He painted more than 300 people in his frescoes! The artist used human models and painted life-like people. He used brilliant colours.
To paint the Sistine Chapel, Michelangelo had to make a special platform that raised him up to the ceiling. Some people believed that he had to lie down to paint but this is probably not true. He started in 1508, it took him more than four years to complete the paintings. He was not keen on taking up the job of painting the ceiling because he was a sculptor and not a painter. But, since the Pope was adamant that he should do it, he could not refuse. The walls of the Sistine chapel also have frescoes by many other great Italian artists.
About Michelangelo
Michelangelo Buonarotti was an Italian sculptor, artist, and poet born in 1475. He grew up in the city of Florence. Michelangelo spent many years studying the human body and how muscles and bones worked. He was very religious. Stories from the Bible were the main subjects of his art. His most famous statue is the marble figure of Biblical hero David. Michelangelo was also an architect. He is one of the designers of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. Today, you can see Michelangelo’s art, more than 500 years after they were created, in many Italian churches and museums.
