refutation of the frequent criticism that Michael Angelo did not finish
his work. The fact is, that he finished more than any one. Had Michael
Angelo done no work but this vault of the Sistine Chapel, it would have
represented an output equal in quantity alone to that of the most prolific
of his brother Italian artists. It is veritably a large picture-gallery of
his works in itself. An idea of its numerical magnitude may be got by
dividing it up into its component units and making an inventory of them.
The vault itself, according to Heath Wilson, is one hundred and thirty-one
feet six inches long, by forty-five feet two and a half inches wide at the
large door end, and forty-three feet two and a half inches at the altar
end, an area of nearly six thousand square feet, which apparently does not
represent the arch measurement but only the plane covered by the arch, nor
does it take account of the triangular and semicircular spaces above the
windows. This vast surface is divided into:--

Four large pictures stretching over more than one-third of the width of
the roof, and containing from five to more than forty-five figures, some
of them twelve feet in height.

Five pictures, half the size of the last, with from one to eight figures
in each.

Twenty colossal nude figures of Athletes.

Ten circular medallions.

Seven large figures of Prophets.

Five large figures of Sibyls; these Prophets and Sibyls would be eighteen
feet high if they stood upright, and most of them have secondary figures
of angel boys between them, twenty-three in all.

Twenty-four decorative pilasters of two children each, in monochrome.

[Image #26]

THE PROPHET DANIEL

SISTINE CHAPEL, ROME
(_By permission of the Fratelli Alinari, Florence_)

Four large triangular compositions representing the Redemptions of Israel,
and containing from five to twenty-two colossal figures.

Eight triangular spaces above the windows, representing the Ancestors of
Christ, containing from two to four colossal figures.

Twenty-four groups in the semicircular spaces above the windows, also of
the Ancestors of Christ, of from one to four colossal figures.

Ten large figures of children forming brackets under the figures of
Prophets and Sibyls, at the springing of the arches between the windows.

Twenty-four bronze-coloured colossal figures filling up the spaces in