other dare attempt, but which today excites the jealous admiration of
every artist soul who views it--the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.
Ghirlandajo, Perugino, Botticelli and Luca Signorelli had worked on the
walls with good effect, but to lie on one's back and paint overhead so as
to bring out a masterly effect when viewed from seventy feet below was
something they dare not attempt. Michelangelo put up his scaffolds, drew
designs, and employed the best fresco artists in Italy to fill in the
color. But as they used their brushes he saw that the designs became
enfeebled under their attempts--they did not grasp the conception--and in
wrath he discharged them all. He then obliterated all they had done, and
shutting out the ceiling from every one but himself, worked alone. Often
for days he would not leave the building, for fear some one would meddle
with the work. He drew up food by a string and slept on the scaffold
without changing his clothes.

After a year of intense application, no one but the artist had viewed the
work. The Pope now demanded that he should be allowed to see it. A part
of the scaffolding was struck, and the delight of the old Pope was
unbounded. This was in Fifteen Hundred Nine, but the completed work was
not shown to the public until All Souls' Day, Fifteen Hundred Twelve.

The guides at the Vatican tell us this ceiling was painted in twenty-two
months, but the letters of Michelangelo, recently published, show that he
worked on it over four years.

It contains over three hundred figures, all larger than life, and some
are fifteen feet long. A complete description of the work Michelangelo
did in this private chapel of the Pope would require a book, and in fact
several books have been written with this ceiling as a subject. The
technical obstacles to overcome in painting scenes and figures on an