Raphael's School of Athens
Fra
Angelico & the Chapel of Nicholas V
Augustus
of Prima Porta
The
Casina of Pius IV
The
Carriage Museum
The
Sistine Chapel
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Recent Restorations |
 In 1508, perhaps also due to the damage
that subsequent problems had caused to the vault, Julius II della Rovere (1503 - 1513)
entrusted Michelangelo with the work of renewing the decoration. After a lengthly and
fruitless resistance, Michelangelo Buonarroti accepted the peremptory order by the Pope in
May and set to work following a program which forsaw large representations of the twelve
Apostles in the spandrels among ornamental geometric motifs. However, Michelangelo,
considering the project "cosa povera", obtained total freedom for his project
from the Pope.Thus
he created a powerful painted architecture on the immense surface of the ceiling which
contains nine episodes from Genesis in the central part, ideally divided into groups of
three, depicting the origin of the universe, of man and evil. The first three episodes
(Separation of Light from Darkness, the Creation of the Stars, the Creation of the
Animals), in which the Creator is the sole and undisputed ruler of natural forces,
contrasts with the episodes of the second group in which the bodies of Adam and Eve, whose
nudity is a symbol of their innocence before sin.
The connection between fault
and punishment ends with the last three episodes (The Sacrifice of Noah, The Flood and the
Drunkeness of Noah) where humanity, though saved from danger, appears dramatically slave
to sin itself.
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