Spandrel: Jesse, David and Solomon

If the usual reading is right, the child barely visible in the dark at the right of this group is Jesse, the father of King David, painted as a baby. The lunette below names Jesse, David and Solomon, and since David and Solomon are recognised down there, Jesse's family is placed up here, in the triangular cell of the vault above.

His mother fills the whole foreground. She sits on the ground facing straight out, completely still, legs folded with the feet crossed under a light violet cloak, a close-fitting green dress showing the muscular build Michelangelo gave his women. One hand rests on her legs and the back of the other touches her cheek, and her gaze seems detached from the man and child sketched in the shadows behind her. According to the Vatican Museums, Michelangelo painted the spandrel in a single day, apart from the bottom right corner. It belongs to the second campaign. In the corners above, two bronze-coloured nudes turn their backs to us and seem to look upward.