The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel portrays some of the most dynamic pre-Christian characters. While the walls of the chapel narrate stories of Christ, the ceiling focuses on stories that lead to his birth. Due to the orientation of the paintings, the viewer might find himself in a state of chaos and confusion at first. Michelangelo painted the ceiling such that “to see everything that is happening, the viewer has to turn constantly, even as he proceeds down the nave” (Campbell, 348), which in a sense forces the viewer to pay attention to individual story paths. In the very center, stories from the book of Genesis are portrayed, starting from the Separation of Light from Darkness (1512) displaying the powerful masculine God physically separating the light from the dark, all the way till the Drunkenness of Noah (1512), showing Noah at his lowest, drunk and naked, with his sons trying to cover his body. Through this central story path, Michelangelo is trying to make the viewer understand where the world started from and where it is going to, to make the need for Christ’s birth felt even more. The one factor that stands out in all the Michelangelo’s paintings, is the body language of each character. All characters are very masculine and dynamic, with almost unrealistic postures. Michelangelo’s obsession with the human body, and his attempt to make it as perfect as possible, was a product of the humanist movement that began around 1500s, which considered the human body as” a mirror to soul’s perfection” (Campbell, 349).
While pagan and biblical prophets take up most of the space surrounding the central story path, “in the lunettes above the windows, Michelangelo painted the passing generations before the coming of Christ” (Campbell, 350). Unlike most of the other characters on the ceiling, the paintings of the Holy Family contain very introvert characters, completely covered and shying away from the viewers. Looking at them, the viewer might find himself in an awkward situation, as if he/she is voyeuristically looking in their personal lives. As the authors of A New History of Italian Renaissance put it, “[the] couples are so absorbed in themselves that they seem oblivious to each other” (Campbell, 351).