Michelangelo was originally working on the funeral monument of Pope Julius II when he received the Sistine Chapel ceiling commission.
Julius II commissioned Michelangelo’s tomb in 1505, envisioning a grand monument with many sculptures. The project was repeatedly revised and reduced because of changing finances, politics, and competing commissions. In 1508, Julius redirected Michelangelo toward the Sistine Chapel ceiling.
The tomb was eventually installed in the church of San Pietro in Vincoli in Rome in 1545, several decades after the pope’s death. Its best-known sculpture is Michelangelo’s Moses, which remains part of the monument.
The episode is central to Michelangelo’s biography because it shows how Renaissance artists often managed several commissions at once. It also helps explain why Michelangelo initially resisted the ceiling project: he regarded himself primarily as a sculptor, yet the commission produced one of the most influential painting cycles in Western art.