The Last Judgement

Painted 25 years after the ceiling, this altar wall is Michelangelo at 66 — angrier, darker, more terrifying. Christ is a beardless, athletic judge whose raised arm sends the damned spiralling down toward Charon's boat. St. Bartholomew holds his own flayed skin, and the face on that skin is Michelangelo's self-portrait: the artist as martyr. The papal master of ceremonies Biagio da Cesena complained about the nudity, and Michelangelo painted him into hell as Minos with donkey ears and a snake biting his groin. Loincloths were added later by 'the breeches-maker' Daniele da Volterra.