LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Michelangelo Buonarroti: Sistine Chapel
built 657 days ago
Michelangelo was a great leader in the Italian Renaissance. His greatest glory, painting the Sistine Chapel, began in 1508, and was completed in 1512. In the beginning, Michelangelo was to paint twelve pictures of the apostles around the outside of the ceiling. Instead of doing so, Michelangelo made another suggestion. He used the central area of the ceiling to paint the history of the Old Testament. It included over 300 figures.
Source:
In 1536, Michelangelo began the Last Judgment fresco in the Sistine Chapel. Approximately 25 years since the completion of the ceiling he was set to put into context the other narrative cycles. Michelangelo ... intended to deliver a final message on piety, human faith and responsibility. The Last Judgment describes the end, the final act of God before paradise is restored. It is a damning expulsion of sinners and glorious exultation of the virtuous. Michelangelo wished to highlight the importance of faith as he contended.
Source:
In April 1508, Michelangelo started his mission on the Sistine Chapel. Julius II called him back to Rome to start his new project. The Sistene church was soon to be painted and Michelangelo wondered what parts of the bible he should use. He felt, Justice, Pain and anguish of the followers of the Dark Lord Lucifer. No? He thought some more, Justice would fit nicely in the church, the creation of man would be good to, the connection of the Omnipotent Father and Adam.
Source:
Michelangelo was commissioned by Pope Julius II to repaint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel after removing him from another project which Michelangelo was concentrated upon finishing, that of Pope Julius' tomb. At first, Buonarroti tried to turn down the commission, stating that he was a sculptor and not a painter. The pope... was insistent. Despite his initial reluctance, the sculptor's plans far exceeded the original order of 12 painted figures on the 44 x 128 foot ceiling. When he finished the painting four years later, he had painted over 300 figures. Working high above the chapel floor, on scaffolding, these are some of the greatest images of all time.
Source:
Back in Rome in 1505 at the request of Pope Julius II, Michelangelo was charged with several tasks. He began the tomb for Julius II. Originally he designed it with forty sculptures and it was to be placed within the Basilica. Michelangelo, at the request of his patron, focused his attentions away from the funeral monument to the Sistine Chapel. Although Michelangelo considered himself a sculptor he is perhaps most renowned for this amazing cycle of frescoes. Perhaps it was Michelangelo’s desire to outdo any of his painting contemporaries, and to prove his own superiority in any artistic field he chose to turn his hand to, that drove Michelangelo to attempt this most demanding and extensive painting project.
Source:
The Sixtine chapel was no sooner completed than Michelangelo resumed work upon the marbles for the monument of Julius. But four months only had passed when Julius died. His heirs immediately entered (in the summer of 1513) into a new contract with Michelangelo for the execution of the monument on a reduced scale. What the precise nature and extent of the original design had been we do not know, only that the monument was to be detached from the wall, and to stand four-square and free - a thing hitherto unknown in Renaissance sepulchral architecture - in one of the chapels of St. Peter's. But the new design was extensive and magnificent enough. It was to consist of a great three-sided structure, two courses high, projecting from the church wall, and decorated on its three unattached sides with statues.
Source:
MORE ABOUT
Sistine Chapel