michelangelo

A major project preventing completion of the tomb of Julius II was a new commission from Julius himself, to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Rome. Between 1508 and 1512 Michelangelo created some of the most memorable images of all time on the vaulted ceiling of the papal chapel in the Vatican. His intricate system of decoration tells the biblical story of Genesis. The Creation of Adam from the Sistine Ceiling (1508-1512) is perhaps Michelangelo's …

…xterior with gigantic pairs of pilasters with Corinthian capitals. The pilasters alternate with large openings topped with pediments. Around the base of the dome the line of the pilasters is echoed by fully rounded columns, which are in turn repeated on a smaller scale in the lantern at the top of the dome. The effect is one of great mass pushing upward, the forms varied in complex ways yet unified as a whole.