Whose Paintings Cover the Sistine Chapel Ceiling?

Italian Renaissance artist Michelangelo Buonarroti painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Vatican City between 1508 and 1512, commissioned by Pope Julius II. The 1,100 square-metre ceiling depicts scenes from the Book of Genesis, including the iconic Creation of Adam showing God's and Adam's outstretched fingers nearly touching. Michelangelo painted mostly standing (not lying on his back, as myth suggests), craning his neck upward for hours. He later painted The Last Judgment on the chapel's altar wall (1536–1541).