The detail and completeness of this fresco are the best 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.