SISTINE CHAPEL, Vault - Scenes

After having built the scaffolding to work from, Michelangelo began painting in July of 1508; he ran into a few problems because he didn't have much experience painting using the fresco technique. Some painters from Florence worked alongside him: you can recognize their work in some parts of The Great Flood and The Inebriation and Sacrifice of Noah. Yet soon thereafter he dismissed all the assistants except for a few who were left to help with elementary tasks such as mixing colors, and Michelangelo continued uninterrupted until August 15th, when the work was about halfway done.

Michelangelo had to trace the drawings he had made on preparatory cartoons using the "spolvere", or etching, technique on the curved surface of the vaulted ceiling; but the lunettes above the windows had a flat surface that let him work more easily: he simply drew the figures' outlines directly on the wall and proceeded at an incredible speed, taking an incredible three days for each lunette!

Then the work was interrupted for a year because the pope left Rome to go fight against the French. On August 15th, 1511, the first part of the vault was uncovered for the Feast of the Assumption. The scaffolding was then rebuilt under the other side of the vault, and the work was completed in October of 1512, for a total of four years!...