Sistine Ceiling Unveiled

October 31, 1512

After four years on the scaffold, Michelangelo let Pope Julius II see the Sistine ceiling. Prophets, sibyls, nudes, and the finger of God reaching toward Adam swarmed across nine thousand square feet of plaster. The Roman court fell silent. Painting had been redefined overnight. The three hundred figures, painted in four years by a sculptor who considered himself a carver, demonstrated fresco mastery no subsequent artist equaled.