In 1508, Pope Julius II commissioned Michelangelo to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. The thirty-three-year-old Michelangelo had very little experience of the physically and technically taxing art of fresco; and, at twelve thousand square feet, the ceiling represented one of the largest such projects ever attempted.

Nevertheless, for the next four years he and a hand-picked team of assistants laboured over the vast ceiling, making thousands of drawings and spending back-breaking hours on a scaffold fifty feet above the floor. The result was one of the greatest masterpieces of all time. This fascinating book tells the story of those four extraordinary years and paints a magnificent picture of day-to-day life on the Sistine scaffolding - and outside, in the upheaval of early sixteenth-century Rome.

The extraordinary story behind Michelangelo's masterpiece by the author of Brunelleschi's Dome.

About the Author
Ross King is a renowned expert in the Italian Renaissance. He is the author of numerous bestselling and acclaimed books include Brunelleschi's Dome, Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling, Leonardo and the Last Supper and Mad Enchantment: Claude Monet and the Painting of the Water Lilies. His love of Renaissance Florence, which he has been studying, writing and lecturing about for over twenty years, made Vespasiano's long-forgotten story - never written about before - an irresistible next subject. He lives just outside Oxford.

Reviews
Ross King deftly stitches modern Michelangelo scholarship into his fluent and gripping narrative. The result is a delightful book that overturns many legends * Independent *
A fascinating and carefully researched account of day-to-day life atop the Sistine scaffolding * The Times *
A narrative that never falls back on exaggeration or deviates from the facts * Sunday Times *
We learn an enormous amount by reading this book; King's grasp of and research into the period seem all-encompassing * Spectator *


Awards
Short-listed for Governor General's Literary Award - Nonfiction 2003.



Book Information
ISBN 9781844139323
Author Dr Ross King
Format Paperback
Page Count 384
Imprint Pimlico
Publisher Vintage Publishing
Weight(grams) 284g
Dimensions(mm) 198mm * 129mm * 23mm