Michelangelo completed the Sistine Chapel ceiling in 1512.
Pope Julius II commissioned the project, and work began in 1508. Michelangelo finished the vast fresco cycle after approximately four years of demanding work, and the completed ceiling was unveiled on 31 October 1512, before All Saints' Day.
The decoration includes nine central scenes from Genesis, surrounded by prophets, sibyls, ancestors of Christ, and supporting figures. Among the best-known images is The Creation of Adam, in which God and Adam reach toward one another.
The ceiling was not painted as a single simple scene. Michelangelo organized the surface into a complex architectural illusion, using painted moldings and figures to divide the imagery into sections. Although he was already a celebrated sculptor, the commission established his reputation as one of the major painters of the Renaissance.