Pope Sixtus IV commissioned the greatest artists of the 1470s
and 80s: Perugino, Botticelli and Ghirlandaio, to paint the walls
of his new chapel. Their work has been recently restored and
unveiled in February as part of the papal celebrations of the
millennium. Their work is, however, overshadowed by the commission
Sixtus' nephew Julius II gave to the young Michelangelo in 1508.
For four years, the young Florentine worked almost alone, covering
the vault with an astonishing array of scenes from the Creation
in Genesis, flanked by Prophets, Sibyls and an army of nudes.
The work he unveiled in 1512, to universal amazement, cast all
previous attempts to depict the human figure into the shade.
It remains the supreme pictorial achievement of the Renaissance,
and, even more amazingly, by an artist who considered himself
to be first and foremost a sculptor. A generation later, Paul
III persuaded the reluctant Michelangelo to paint the Last Judgement
on the altar wall. Christ sets in motion a gigantic vortex, lifting
up the saved to heaven and sending the damned to hell. Among
the many agonised expressions, the most haunting is the artist's
self-portrait as the flayed skin of St Bartholomew.
