How many central panels on the Sistine Chapel ceiling depict scenes from Genesis?

The story behind the answer

Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel ceiling has nine central panels depicting scenes from Genesis.

These panels form the ceiling’s main narrative sequence and are arranged in three groups of three. The groups cover the creation of the world, the creation and fall of humanity, and the story of Noah and his family.

The scenes include The Separation of Light from Darkness, The Creation of the Sun, Moon and Plants, The Creation of Adam, The Creation of Eve, The Fall and Expulsion, The Sacrifice of Noah, The Great Flood, and The Drunkenness of Noah.

The panels are often remembered mainly through The Creation of Adam, but that famous image is only one of the nine. Other parts of the ceiling add prophets, sibyls, ancestors of Christ, ignudi, and decorative architectural elements, making the full scheme much larger than the central Genesis sequence.

Source: Wikipedia · fact-checked Sept. 2026

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