“He gave me a new commission, to do what I liked.”
Michelangelo – hand-painted paintings in oil on canvas
At SvetSlik.si you can order 17 paintings by Michelangelo as hand-painted oil reproductions on canvas, painted by our own painters. Every painting comes in several sizes – 84 formats across the gallery, from 40 x 49 cm to 234 x 244 cm – or in a custom size you give us, and prices start at 900 €. We paint to order, so delivery takes 15 to 45 working days, and before your painting leaves us we send you a photograph of it to approve.
The words at the top of this text are Michelangelo’s own, from his later account of what happened in 1508. Pope Julius II had first planned the twelve apostles in a geometric pattern for the Sistine Chapel ceiling, but Michelangelo felt that the scheme left too little room for human figures. The Pope allowed him to change the design – or so he later told it, and many art historians suspect the claim is rather overstated.
Michelangelo’s periods – and what you will find in our gallery
Early panel paintings (c. 1487–1501)
At 13 Michelangelo was apprenticed to the Florentine painter Domenico Ghirlandaio. If the work is truly his – the attribution is disputed – The Torment of Saint Anthony is his earliest surviving painting, a copy in colour of an engraving by Martin Schongauer, in which winged demons with scales, spines and horns attack the old saint in mid-air. From his first years in Rome, around 1497, comes The Manchester Madonna: Mary holds a book away from the Child while two angels at the right read a scroll. Around 1500 in Rome he worked on The Entombment, probably the altarpiece for a funerary chapel in Sant’Agostino, left unfinished when he returned to Florence in 1501.
Florence after the David (c. 1505–1506)
He finished the statue of David in 1504, and soon afterwards painted The Doni Tondo for Agnolo Doni, perhaps to mark his marriage to Maddalena Strozzi. It is the only finished panel painting by the mature Michelangelo to survive. Mary sits on the ground and twists towards Joseph to hand him the Child or take him back, the small John the Baptist stands behind a low wall, and in the background sit five nude youths whose meaning is still debated.
The Sistine Chapel ceiling (1508–1512)
For Pope Julius II, Michelangelo painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican in fresco between 1508 and 1512. He began at the west end with the scenes from the story of Noah, so The Deluge is among the first scenes he painted: the Ark floats at the back while people carrying children and bundles scramble for high ground. Along the sides of the ceiling sit prophets and sibyls, the largest figures on it, each named on a marble tablet held by a putto. Between 1509 and 1511 he painted The Delphic Sibyl, the prophetess of Apollo’s oracle at Delphi, The Prophet Isaiah, keeping his place in a closed book with one finger, The Prophet Ezekiel, turning sharply aside with a scroll in his hand, and The Prophet Daniel, copying from a great book held up for him by a nude child.
The most famous Michelangelo paintings at SvetSlik.si
Among the panel paintings the best known is The Doni Tondo, which the Uffizi still keeps in its original carved frame. From the Sistine ceiling, buyers most often choose The Delphic Sibyl with her wide-open eyes, or The Deluge, whose crowd of figures fills a long wall.
Which Michelangelo painting suits which room?
Michelangelo’s figures are powerful and shaped like sculpture, so they need a little space around them. The Deluge, long and narrow, belongs above a sofa or sideboard in a living room. The Delphic Sibyl, tall and slender, works well on a narrow wall beside a door, in a hallway or on a staircase, and The Doni Tondo, almost square, in a dining room or bedroom. The original frescoes measure several metres, so every size we paint is smaller than they are, while The Torment of Saint Anthony is a small panel that we paint much larger. A good rule of thumb: choose a painting about two thirds as wide as the furniture beneath it, with its centre about 150 cm from the floor.
Sizes, prices, custom size, stretcher and frame
The sizes of each painting follow the proportions of the original, and the product page lists the price of every size. Across the gallery there are 84 formats, from 40 x 49 cm to 234 x 244 cm, and prices start at 900 €. The Deluge, with its long, narrow shape, comes in three sizes only. The Doni Tondo is a round painting in the original; we paint the round composition on a square canvas with plain light corners, as in the photograph, and sell it without the carved frame. If your wall needs a different measurement, send us the width and height: we paint to your own size. We send the painting rolled, stretched on a wooden stretcher bar or framed; you choose the frame in our 3D application, which is for choosing the frame only. For a gift, there is the wall art voucher.
How we hand-paint a Michelangelo
Our painter paints every painting by hand in oil on canvas, layer by layer, from a high-resolution photograph of the original. The Sistine ceiling scenes are frescoes, painted into wet plaster on a vaulted ceiling some 20 metres above the floor; our painting is an oil reproduction on canvas, not a fresco. The colours follow the ceiling as it looks after the restoration of 1980 to 1989, which revealed brighter colours. With Michelangelo the painter first builds the bodies out of light and shadow, then adds the folds of the drapery and the faces. The Manchester Madonna and The Entombment were left unfinished, so we paint them as they stand, unfinished parts included. If something in the final photograph is not right, we correct it before dispatch.
Michelangelo in brief
Michelangelo Buonarroti was born on 6 March 1475 in Caprese in Tuscany and died in Rome on 18 February 1564. He worked in Florence and Rome, above all as a sculptor – he carved the Pietà and the David before he was 30 – but he was also a painter, an architect and a poet. He designed the dome of St Peter’s Basilica, completed after his death, and between 1534 and 1541 he painted The Last Judgment on the altar wall of the Sistine Chapel. Read more in the Michelangelo biography.
Frequently asked questions
Which Michelangelo paintings can I order?
The gallery holds The Doni Tondo, The Manchester Madonna, The Entombment, The Torment of Saint Anthony and scenes from the Sistine ceiling: The Deluge, The Delphic Sibyl and the prophets Isaiah, Ezekiel and Daniel.
Are the Sistine ceiling paintings frescoes?
The originals are frescoes, painted into wet plaster on the chapel ceiling. Ours are hand-painted oil reproductions on canvas that you hang like any other painting.
Why is your Doni Tondo square?
The original is a round panel 120 cm across in a carved frame. We paint the round composition on a square canvas with plain light corners and sell it without the carved frame.
Why are The Manchester Madonna and The Entombment unfinished?
Michelangelo finished neither; he left The Entombment when he returned to Florence in 1501. Our painters paint both as they look today, unfinished parts included.
Where can you see the originals?
The frescoes are on the Sistine Chapel ceiling in the Vatican Museums, The Doni Tondo in the Uffizi in Florence, The Manchester Madonna and The Entombment in the National Gallery in London, and The Torment of Saint Anthony in the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas.
How much does a Michelangelo painting cost?
The originals are in museums and in the Sistine Chapel. A hand-painted oil reproduction on canvas from SvetSlik.si starts at 900 €, depending on the painting and the size. You get a real painting, not a print.
Which size should I choose?
Measure the furniture below the wall and choose a painting about two thirds of that width. Each painting’s page lists all its sizes with prices; if none fits, we paint your own measurements.
How long does delivery take, and can I order a custom size?
Each painting is painted to order, so delivery takes 15 to 45 working days. You can order a custom size for any painting, and before dispatch you receive a photograph of the finished painting.