Delphic Sibyl

By Michelangelo's own account, written in a letter in 1523, the ceiling began with a much plainer plan. Pope Julius II wanted the 12 apostles painted up here. Michelangelo told him that apostles alone would make a poor thing, and when the pope asked why, he answered that the apostles themselves had been poor. Julius, in this telling, then let him do as he liked.

The Delphic Sibyl sits roughly where that first plan would have put an apostle. She stands for the priestess of Apollo's oracle at Delphi, the most famous shrine of prophecy in the Greek world. Christian writers had long held that pagan seers like her had also foretold the coming of Christ, and so five sibyls share the ceiling with the Hebrew prophets. Michelangelo painted her around 1509, near the entrance end of the chapel, close to Zechariah over the door. She is young, holding an unrolled scroll in one hand, and she turns her head sharply, wide-eyed, with her lips parted.