Frescoes in the Sistine Chapel

Michelangelo was commissioned by Pope Julius II della Rovere in 1508 to repaint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel frescoed earlier by Piero Matteo d'Amelia with a star-spangled sky. The work was completed between 1508 and 1512. He painted the Last Judgement over the altar, between 1535 and 1541, being commissioned by Pope Paul III Farnese. This monumental fresco covers the entire end wall of the chapel which led the obliteration of the frescoes painted at the time of Sixtus IV: the first figures of the popes, the first two scenes of the life of Christ and life of Moses, the image of the Virgin of Assumption (by Perugino), together with the first two lunettes, representing the Ancestors of Christ frescoed earlier by Michelangelo himself. The two large windows set into the altar wall were closed up.