Which artist painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel between 1508 and 1512?

Michelangelo painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel between 1508 and 1512.

Pope Julius II commissioned the project for the Vatican chapel in Rome. Michelangelo was primarily known as a sculptor, but he designed a complex series of frescoes showing scenes from the Book of Genesis, including The Creation of Adam.

The ceiling contains more than 300 painted figures and covers about 800 square metres. Michelangelo worked largely standing on scaffolding rather than lying down, a detail often simplified in popular accounts.

The Sistine Chapel ceiling should not be confused with Michelangelo's later Last Judgment, which occupies the chapel's altar wall and was painted from 1536 to 1541.