Michelangelo Buonarroti. Sonnet "To Giovanni da Pistoia" and Caricature on His Painting of the Sistine Ceiling. Pen and brown ink, sheet: 11 1/8 x 7 7/8 in. (28.3 x 20 cm). Casa Buonarroti, Florence Archivio Buonarroti (XIII, fol. 111)
507 years ago today — On November 1st, 1512 — Michelangelo Buonarroti officially unveiled his paintings on the Sistine Chapel ceiling, one of the most legendary and beloved pieces of art in all of western history. In honor of that anniversary — and inspired by my personal obsession with the man as evidenced by me writing two novels about him (Oil and Marble and Raphael)— here are 10 facts most people don’t know about that ceiling.
Michelangelo Painted While Standing Up
The myth of Michelangelo lying on his back to paint the ceiling is just that — a myth. Look at Michelangelo’s own drawings. He sketched himself painting that ceiling. Yes, a couple of times, he probably had to lie down to reach a difficult portion, but it wasn’t the norm… Think about it: if he were only an arm-length from the ceiling, how would he have crawled in and out of such a narrow space without smearing the paint? How would he have grabbed a new brush or mixed new pigment or applied his designs to the ceiling? Nope. Sorry. Michelangelo painted, like the rest of us, standing up.
He Injured His Back and Eyesight
In the poem written next to the sketch mentioned above, Michelangelo detailed the physical agonies he suffered while painting the ceiling: “In this hard toil I’ve such a goiter grown… My loins have entered my paunch within… My feet unseen move to and from in vain… while I am bent as bowmen bend… no longer true nor sane.” The poem goes on and on about his pains in his back and body. But the most fascinating injury to me? He’d stood so long with his head tilted back to paint that he altered his eyesight, and, for years after, had to hold letters over his head (neck bent backwards) to read be able to read.
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He had to Design an Inventive Scaffolding
Pope Julius II insisted that work not disturb religious services held in the Sistine Chapel, so Michelangelo couldn’t use a standard scaffolding, resting on the floor and rising up to the ceiling. The pope’s official architect and Michelangelo’s rival, Donato Bramante, suggested drilling holes in the vault and hanging scaffolding from rope, but that would’ve left holes. Instead, Michelangelo designed his own scaffolding: an inventive array of interconnected footbridges and platforms, anchored into the walls ABOVE the old fresco masterpieces already on the walls (By Botticelli, Perugino, Ghirlandaio), but beneath the area Michelangelo was to paint.
Part Molded and Had to be Repainted
The first panel Michelangelo attempted was The Flood, but he was using a plaster mix not intended for the humidity in Rome, and the panel molded. Michelangelo had to cut down three months of work and begin again (The missing portion of this panel has nothing to do with the mold. A section of plaster came loose and fell off during a nearby gunpowder explosion in 1797.)
While Michelangelo Painted, the Pope Went into Hiding from the French Army
While Michelangelo painted the Sistine for Pope Julius II (seen here in a portrait by Raphael), the pontiff fled to the Castel Sant’Angelo to hide from the French Army, marching toward Rome. When the leader of the French army, Gaston de Foix, unexpectedly died on the battlefield, Pope Julius triumphantly shaved off his beard and declared victory. As a fiction writer, I can’t help but wonder: how must’ve Michelangelo felt, abandoned in the Vatican to paint, while his patron hid from a bloodthirsty foreign army.
One of the Prophets May be a Portrait of Pope Julius II
Speaking of the Sistine’s patron, one of the prophets — Zechariah — is likely a portrait of Pope Julius II. It’s common for artists to include an image of their patron in the work, but there is something unusual about this image. Some scholars believe that one of the boys behind Zechariah’s back is pushing his thumb through the fingers of his fist. Is this boy flipping a lewd gesture — ‘the fig’ — at an image of the Holy Pontiff? Perhaps this is a result of just how frustrated Michelangelo became with his notoriously temperamental patron.
The Center Panel of the Ceiling is the Creation of Eve
When we think of the Sistine Ceiling, we often think of Michelangelo’s iconic image of the Creation of Adam, don’t we? But did you know that Michelangelo did not put the creation of MAN at the center of the ceiling? No. The central panel is the Creation of Eve. Michelangelo centered his entire legendary ceiling around the creation of WOMAN.
The Subject of One Creation Scene is Widely Disputed
Just look at the lack of detail in this panel: it’s almost impossible to figure out which creation scene Michelangelo is depicting here. Is it The Separation of Land and Water, Separation of Earth and Sky, or maybe Creation of the Fishes? No one is quite sure, but one thing we do know: it’s made up of 26 separate giornate — meaning it took Michelangelo 26 days of work to complete (in comparison to the 16 days it took him to paint The Creation of Adam or… see the next point)
Michelangelo Painted One Creation Panel in a Single Day
Michelangelo painted this entire panel—God twirling, swirling, knee bulging out in breathtaking foreshortening—in a single day. He painted it in ONE day. Enough said.
25 Years Later Michelangelo Had to Destroy Part of His Ceiling
When Michelangelo was about 60 years old, he returned to the Sistine Chapel under the orders of a new pope, Clement VII, to paint The Last Judgement on the altar wall. But before he could start, he had to cut down two of his own lunettes depicting the Ancestors of Christ to make room for the new painting. Twenty-five years after surviving the agony of painting that ceiling, Michelangelo was back, as a 60 year old, cutting down his own work to begin again.
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Want to dive deeper into the story of the Sistine? Check out my new novel, Raphael, Painter in Rome, coming April 2020 (due out in time for the 500th anniversary of Raphael’s death). This new novel covers the years when Michelangelo was painting the Sistine Ceiling while his rival, Raphael Santi of Urbino, was just down the hall in the Vatican, painting masterpieces on the walls of the pope’s private apartments.