How long did it take to paint the Sistine Chapel?
Sistine Chapel ceiling
The iconography of the ceiling has had various interpretations in the past, some elements of which have been contradicted by modern scholarship.[nb 4] Others, such as the identity of the figures in the lunettes and spandrels, continue to defy interpretation.[28] Modern scholars have sought, as yet unsuccessfully, to determine a written source of the theological program of the ceiling and have questioned whether or not it was entirely devised by the artist himself, who was both an avid reader of the Bible and a genius.[29] Also of interest to some modern scholars is the question of how Michelangelo's own spiritual and psychological state is reflected in the iconography and the expression of the ceiling. One such speculation is that Michelangelo was tormented by conflict between homosexual desires and passionate Christian beliefs.[nb 5]