Michelangelo wanted us to believe that he painted the Sistine Chapel with divine inspiration and without sketches. Don’t believe the hype.

In Michelangelo Public and Private (at the Seattle Art Museum now through January 31), 12 of his original drawings—charcoal sketches of arms, legs, torsos, and faces—offer insight into the arduous process of painting the Sistine Chapel and The Last Judgment. They hang framed next to floor-to-ceiling reproductions of the two masterpieces, so you can see how an outline becomes art.

But with proper context, these sketches are amazing pieces of 16th-century art in their own right. Chiyo Ishikawa, deputy director for art and curator of European painting and sculpture at Seattle Art Museum, explained their origin at a recent SAM "In the Studio" event at Hotel 1000. Here are our favorite things we learned:

1. Michelangelo burned most of his sketches but preserved a few, leaving roughly 600 to his family. Ishikawa wasn’t sure why he chose these images in particular, but they’re kept at Casa Buonarotti in Florence and rarely leave his home city.

2. In one instance, several body parts are sketched onto the same piece of paper. This speaks both to the high cost of paper at that time and Michelangelo’s frugality. Though he was from an aristocratic background, his profession was considered "lower class," and he struggled to reconcile the two.

3. "Drawing was the foundation of everything he did," Ishikawa says. The rarest sketch is Michelangelo’s first preparatory drawing for The Last Judgment, which details dozens of individual bodies on on small sheet of paper.

4. A few of Michelangelo’s letters to his nephew are also on display. Though his talent is evident in this exhibit, it’s refreshing to know he’s writing mostly about "wine, chocolate, and family." The best part? Even a grocery list/dinner menu is framed. A man’s gotta eat.

Find out more about Michelangelo Public and Private with a guided cell phone tour within the gallery. Dr Gary Radke discusses the man behind the legend. Now through January 31.