Who painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel — the 1,100-square-metre fresco that has *The Creation of Adam* in the middle?
Michelangelo did the ceiling on commission from Pope Julius II, mostly working on his back on scaffolding for four years and complaining bitterly the entire time. Leonardo was the same generation but mostly painted small panels and the *Last Supper* (a fresco in Milan, not a Vatican commission). Raphael was painting the Pope's living rooms — the Stanze, right next door to the Sistine — at the same time. Botticelli had actually painted some of the *wall* frescoes in the Sistine 30 years earlier, but not the ceiling.
Read the full facts →The Renaissance was a cultural and intellectual movement in Europe between approximately 1400 and 1600 that revived classical Greek and Roman learning, produced new art and science, and laid the groundwork for the modern world. It began in northern Italy and spread north and west across the continent.
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