Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel ceiling was unveiled in 1512. The finished decoration was formally revealed on 31 October, with a papal Mass following on All Saints’ Day.
Pope Julius II commissioned Michelangelo to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, even though Michelangelo was chiefly known as a sculptor. He worked on the fresco cycle from 1508 to 1512, covering the vault with scenes from Genesis, including the Creation of Adam, the Fall of Man, and episodes from Noah’s story.
There was also an earlier unveiling that can cause confusion: the first half of the ceiling was shown in August 1511. That was a progress unveiling, not the public revelation of the completed scheme. The entire ceiling, containing hundreds of figures and nine central narrative scenes, was unveiled in 1512.
The chapel itself had been built in the late fifteenth century under Pope Sixtus IV. Michelangelo’s ceiling became the first major stage in the chapel’s famous decoration; he returned decades later to paint The Last Judgment on the altar wall.