Michelangelo Sketch - Painting in the Sistine Chapel

In December of 1508, Michelangelo wrote a sonnet about what it was like for him to paint the ceiling in the Sistine Chapel.  He also sketched himself, brush in hand.  These are his words, translated into English:

Here like a cat in a Lombardy sewer! Swelter and toil!
With my neck puffed out like a pigeon,
belly hanging like an empty sack,
beard pointing at the ceiling, and my brain
fallen backwards in my head!
Breastbone bulging like a harpy’s
and my face, from drips and droplets,
patterned like a marble pavement.
Ribs are poking in my guts; the only way
to counterweight my shoulders is to stick
my butt out. Don’t know where my feet are -
they’re just dancing by themselves!
In front I’ve sagged and stretched; behind,
my back is tauter than an archer’s bow!

In other words ... it wasn't easy figuring out how to paint with his arms above him - for four years!

Credits

Michelangelo's sonnet and drawing, commenting on painting the Sistine ceiling, quoted by Richard Freidenthal in Letters of the Great Artists, 1963, Thames and Hudson. 

Image online, courtesy Wikimedia Commons.