2016-11-01 Tue

On November 1, 1512, the majestic ceiling frescoes adorning Rome’s Sistine Chapel were unveiled to the public. Painted by a rising young sculptor named Michelangelo, they remain one of the Italian Renaissance’s most iconic masterpieces.

Michelangelo Buonarroti, the greatest of the Italian Renaissance artists, was born in the small village of Caprese in 1475. The son of a government administrator, he grew up in Florence, a center of the early Renaissance movement, and became an artist's apprentice at age 13. Demonstrating obvious talent, he was taken under the wing of Lorenzo de' Medici, the ruler of the Florentine republic and a great patron of the arts. After demonstrating his mastery of sculpture in such works as the ‘Pieta’ (1498) and ‘David’ (1504), he was called to Rome in 1508 to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, the chief consecrated space in the Vatican.

Michelangelo's epic ceiling frescoes, which took several years to complete, are among his most memorable works. Central in a complex system of decoration featuring numerous figures in nine panels devoted to biblical world history. The most famous of these is ‘The Creation of Adam’, a painting in which the arms of God and Adam are stretching toward each other. In 1512, Michelangelo completed the work.

5 million neck-craning tourists peering at the beauty of Sistine Chapel each year and it is the most popular tourist destination. The impressions of Michelangelo’s painting have been duplicated by numerous postal services on their stamps. India is not far behind in the relay. India, on 28th June 1975 issued a stamp with the most famous fresco of Sistine Chapel to memorialize Michelangelo on his 500th birth anniversary.