Michelangelo sculpted David from a block of marble in Florence which had been damaged by another sculptor. David faced and killed the giant, Goliath, in the Old Testament.
2 How good was Michelangelo as a painter?
The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel Pope Julius II asked Michelangelo to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. He painted four main scenes and many smaller scenes from the Old Testament. It took Michelangelo four years to finish this fresco painting. He painted the ceiling largely lying on his back on scaffolding. As he wrote in a poem,
‘my paintbrush all the day Doth rain a rich mosaic (of paint) on my face …’
The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. The four main scenes are 1. The Creation of the World 2. The Creation of Adam 3. The Fall in the Garden of Eden 4. The Great Flood. Other scenes include stories from the Bible, and pictures of the prophets.