The Last Judgment

Commissioned by Pope Paul III and painted by Michelangelo between 1536 and 1541, 'The Last Judgement' covers the entire altar wall of the Sistine Chapel — some 12 × 14 metres of fresco — in answer to the Genesis cycle he had painted on the ceiling three decades earlier. A muscular Christ delivers the gesture of judgement at the centre; the saved rise on the right, the damned are ferried by Charon into Hell on the left, and saints brandish the instruments of their martyrdom in a swirling ring of 391 nude figures. The startling nudity scandalised the papal court and was partly painted over with draperies soon after Michelangelo's death — the so-called 'braghettoni'.

Exhibition Venue

Pinacoteca Vaticana

Vatican City, Vatican City