Zerubbabel, Abiud and Eliakim

This lunette from the Sistine Chapel ceiling depicts the ancestors of Christ—Zerubbabel, Abiud, and Eliakim—as part of Michelangelo’s monumental fresco cycle commissioned by Pope Julius II. Painted between 1508 and 1512, the ceiling transformed the papal chapel into the greatest single artwork of the Renaissance, establishing Michelangelo as the supreme artistic genius of his age. Characteristic of Michelangelo's approach, the work displays Herculean anatomy, terribilità, sculptural conception of painting, non-finito technique.

The lunette figures are rendered in the compressed, dynamic poses that Michelangelo developed to accommodate the curved architectural surfaces. His powerful modeling of human form through light and shadow creates monumental presence within the limited space.