He was reluctant at first, having intended to spend the rest of his days completing the tomb of Julius II. Michelangelo’s masterpiece covered up fifteenth century art works executed by a number of famous artist’s including Pietro Perugino, Sandro Botticelli, Domenico Ghirlandaio. To reach the high ceilings, Michelangelo constructed his own scaffold built out from the holes above the windows. Unfortunately, this meant he had to paint in a standing position, for which he described his physical discomfort in a poem to Giovanni da Pistoia:
I’ve already grown a goiter from this torture, hunched up here like a cat in Lombardy.
My stomach’s squashed under my chin, my beard’s pointing at heaven, my brain’s crushed in a …show more content…
In the first, titled The Drunkenness of Noah, Noah appears once as a farmer working in his vineyard, and again laying naked in his tent. He is being tended two by his three sons, whom also appear naked. His drunken state is a result of the Great Flood, the second of these scenes. More than sixty figures are pictured in The Flood, some aboard a small boat in the middle ground, and others seeking refuge on the smaller corners of land (Finnan). Noah’s arc is being constructed on calmer waters in the painting’s background, symbolizing the hope of salvation from human tragedy. The final scene, The Sacrifice of Noah, sees Noah giving thanks to the lord at the altar for his safe delivery from the waters. The younger fugures atop the rams were later added to the painting by Domenico Carnevali in 1568. After Michelangelo completed these frescoes and removed the scaffold, he realized that the figures were too small and grouped together, making the story hard to follow from the distance of the floor. As he moved towards the altar side of the ceiling, he took to painting larger characters that were more expressive of movement (“Michelangelo’s