Michelangelo’s Last Judgement

Before entering the Sistine Chapel, picture the altar wall as a gathering around Christ. Mary is beside him. Saints cluster around the central group, and angels below sound trumpets. Figures rise from the dead, move upwards or are drawn down. Michelangelo painted this Christian vision of the Last Judgement between 1536 and 1541, decades after his ceiling. Some saints carry the objects by which viewers recognize them. Peter has keys. Bartholomew holds a flayed skin, whose face is often interpreted as Michelangelo's self-portrait. Lower down, Charon and Minos connect the imagery with Dante's Inferno, the poem's account of hell. The wall changed after Michelangelo finished it. Controversy over naked figures led to a decision in 1564 to cover some bodies. Daniele da Volterra painted drapery, with further additions later. The earlier wall decoration had itself been replaced to make room for this painting. Remember the central group and the movement below, then put your phone away before entering. Silence, with no photography or filming, is required inside.