page_title: Sistine Chapel ceiling
section_title: Medallions
hierarchical_section_title: Sistine Chapel ceiling / Pictorial scheme / Nine scenes from the Book of Genesis / Medallions
caption_attribution_description: English: The prophet Isaiah, fresco painted by Michelangelo (1475-1564), Sistine Chapel Ceiling (1508-1512) Rome, Vatican Deutsch: Jesaja, Esaias, Decke der Sixtinischen Kapelle, Michelangelo, Rom, Vatikan
context_page_description: 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 Judgement on the sanctuary wall, also by Michelangelo, wall paintings by several leading painters of the late 15th century including Sandro Botticelli, Domenico Ghirlandaio and Pietro Perugino, and a set of large tapestries by Raphael, the whole illustrating much of the doctrine of the Catholic Church.
  Central to the ceiling decoration are nine scenes from the Book of Genesis, of which The Creation of Adam is the best known, having an iconic standing equalled only by Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa, the hands of God and Adam being reproduced in countless imitations.
context_section_description: Adjacent to the smaller Biblical scenes in the first register and supported by the paired ignudi are ten medallions. Each is decorated with a picture drawn from the Old Testament.
  Michelangelo's obscure Old Testament themes were adapted from the wood-cut illustrations of the 1490 Malermi Bible, the first Italian-language Bible named after its translator Nicolò Malermi.  In four of the five most highly finished medallions the space is crowded with figures in violent action, similar to Michelangelo's cartoon for the Battle of Cascina.
  The medallions represent:
  Abraham about to sacrifice his son Isaac
  The Destruction of the Statue of Baal
  The worshippers of Baal being brutally slaughtered.
  Uriah being beaten to death.
  Nathan the priest condemning King David for murder and adultery.
  King David's traitorous son Absalom caught by his hair in a tree while trying to escape and beheaded by David's troops.
  Joab sneaking up on Abner to murder him
  Joram being hurled from a chariot onto his head.
  Elijah being carried up to Heaven
  On one medallion the subject is either obliterated or incomplete.
  Section references
caption: The Prophet Isaiah
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