Michelangelo Painted the Sistine Chapel Ceiling Standing Up

The enduring image of the artist lying flat on his back to paint the Vatican's masterpiece is a myth, largely popularized by the 1965 film "The Agony and the Ecstasy." The reality was both more ingenious and more grueling. To reach the 68-foot-high vaulted ceiling, Michelangelo designed his own unique scaffolding. It was a curved, stepped wooden platform built on brackets secured into holes in the chapel walls, high above the floor. This allowed him to stand or crouch, bending backward to apply paint to the wet plaster directly above his head.

This physically demanding posture was a necessity of the fresco technique, which requires the artist to paint quickly on fresh, damp plaster before it dries. For four years, from 1508 to 1512, Michelangelo worked in this contorted position. He lamented the physical toll in a sonnet, describing how his "beard turns up to heaven" and his spine is "all crumpled." Paint constantly dripped onto his face and into his eyes. The monumental effort required to complete the more than 5,000 square feet of frescoes left the artist with chronic ailments, including neck, back, and joint pain that would afflict him for the rest of his life.