The Last Judgment

A wall full of bodies, circling around a young, beardless Christ who raises his arm. On his right hand the dead rise from the ground and are pulled upward; on his left they are dragged down to a boat and a dark shore.

Michelangelo painted the altar wall of the Sistine Chapel from 1536 to 1541, a quarter of a century after the ceiling. The many nudes caused offence even before the fresco was finished; after the Council of Trent the painter Daniele da Volterra was ordered to add draperies, which earned him the nickname “breeches-maker”.