Sistine Chapel ceiling Sistine Chapel ceiling The Sistine Chapel ceiling, painted by Michelangelo between 1508 and 1512, is a cornerstone work of High Renaissance art. The ceiling is that of the Sistine Chapel, the large papal chapel built within the Vatican between 1477 and 1480 by Pope Sixtus IV, for whom the chapel is named. It was painted at the commission of Pope Julius II. The chapel is the location for papal conclaves and many other important services. The ceiling's various painted elements form part of a larger scheme of decoration within the Chapel, which includes the large fresco "The Last Judgment" on
Sistine Chapel Choir Thus the ""magister capellae"" came immediately after the cardinals, followed, in the order given, by the ""sacrista"", ""cantores"", ""capellani"" and ""clerici"". With the building by Sixtus IV (1471–84) of the church for the celebration of all papal functions since known as the Sistine Chapel, the original ""schola cantorum"" and subsequent ""capella pontificia"" or ""capella papale"" became the ""capella sistina"", or Sistine Choir. Up to this time the number of singers had varied considerably, there being sometimes as few as nine men and six boys. By a Bull dated November, 1483, Sixtus IV fixed the number at twenty-four, six for each