A History of Michelangelo’s Creation of Adam in the Sistine Chapel
Michelangelo repeatedly explained to the pope that he considered himself a sculptor, not a painter. He was already renowned for two masterpieces: the deeply moving sculpture of Mary cradling Jesus’s body – his PietÃ? – housed in St. Peter’s Basilica, and the impressive statue of David in his hometown of Florence. But Julius knew that Michelangelo was no slouch with a paint brush. So when the artist tried to decline the commission, the pope made it an order.
Once he was committed to the project, Michelangelo didn’t cut corners. Julius said he wanted to see portraits of the 12 apostles, but Michelangelo took it upon himself to cover the entire ceiling with more than 300 figures.
Taking Art to New Heights
The original plan for decorating the chapel put the masterpieces on the walls. The pope who ordered the chapel’s construction, Sixtus IV (whose name gives us “Sistine”), hired the leading artists of the 1480s to fill them with scenes from the lives of Moses and Jesus. The ceiling, at that time, was unobtrusive – just a deep blue backdrop with some gold stars.
Michelangelo decided that his “higher” contribution would show the earliest scenes from the Bible, as well as other famous figures. Down the center of the ceiling, he fleshed out stories from the Book of Genesis – the creation of Adam, the snake tempting Eve in the Garden of Eden, Noah’s ark.
But these were just part of Michelangelo’s vision. He filled the rest of the ceiling with portraits of prophets like Ezekiel and Isaiah. He added symbols of ancient times, like the Oracle at Delphi, to illustrate his belief that even the pagans of the past were waiting for the Messiah. Then there are the naked guys, called “Ignudi,” tucked into the corners of the Bible scenes. They’ve been interpreted a variety of ways.
Michelangelo rounded out the composition with smaller figures depicting 40 generations of Jesus’s ancestors. In the end, just about the only people who weren’t included were – you guessed it – the 12 apostles. Good thing Michelangelo got Julius II to let him paint whatever he wanted.
More Agony Than Ecstasy
Michelangelo spent nearly four years working on a special six-story scaffold, craning his neck and stretching his arms out to paint the scenes in wet plaster. The fresco medium is much less forgiving than, say, oil painting. If you make a mistake in the wet plaster, you have to scrape it all off and start over. Michelangelo didn’t really paint lying on his back, but it must have been exhausting work.
When it was done, Michelangelo had composed an artwork covering 5,400 square feet – and had painted every human figure with his own brush. (Italian masters often employed assistants, but Michelangelo wasn’t very good at subcontracting.) In 1512, Pope Julius II held a special All Saints’ Day mass under the completed ceiling, and the finished work aroused a sensation. It’s been generating buzz in the art world ever since.
