How old was Michelangelo when he began the Sistine Chapel ceiling?

Michelangelo was 33 years old when he began work on the Sistine Chapel ceiling. Pope Julius II commissioned the project in 1508, when Michelangelo was already celebrated as a sculptor but had far less experience with a fresco cycle of this scale.

The first plan was relatively modest: twelve apostles in the pendentives, with decorative painting elsewhere. Michelangelo negotiated a much more ambitious design, eventually covering the vault with nine central scenes from Genesis, including the Creation of Adam, along with prophets, sibyls, and nude figures called ignudi.

Painting fresco required applying pigments to freshly laid plaster, so each section had to be completed while the surface was wet. The artist worked high above the chapel floor on specially designed scaffolding. Contrary to a popular image, he did not simply lie flat on his back; he generally painted while standing or leaning backward beneath the vault.

The ceiling took roughly four years, from 1508 to 1512. Julius II inaugurated it on All Saints’ Day, 1 November 1512. Michelangelo later returned to the chapel to paint The Last Judgment on the altar wall.