Frescoes in the Sistine Chapel: Division of the ceiling frescoes

The frescoes on the ceiling can be divided into eleven transversal sections: nine bays as well as the spandrels and pendentives over the entry door and the altar, respectively.

When he frescoed the vault of the chapel, Michelangelo started from the area near the entrance wall and proceeded towards the altar, thus the order in which the biblical scenes (and the lunettes) were painted is the reverse of that of the chronological sequence of both the Genesis and the ancestors of Christ. We present here these sections starting from the entrance wall.