The Last Judgment fresco painting by the Italian Renaissance painter Michelangelo. The 13.7m × 12m fresco covers the altar wa

Michelangelo's The Last Judgment is without doubt the most visually striking and impressive piece in the Sistine Chapel. The size alone is overwhelming as the painting measures 180 square meters or almost 2,000 square feet and contains 390 separate characters. This monumental painting on the altar wall was created 25 years after the ceiling was finished. While commissioned by Pope Clement VII, only two days after Michelangelo arrived in Rome in 1534 to begin the assignment, Clement died. But his successor, Paul III, allowed the project to continue. The Last Judgment was heavily inspired by Dante's Divine Comedy, one of the greatest works of both Italian and world literature. The poem's imaginative view of the afterlife is divided into three parts, paradise, purgatory, and hell. At the very top, the angels on the left are holding the cross and the crown of thorns, and the angels on the right carry the post on which Jesus was whipped. Underneath is the section of the painting depicting the saints, with Christ appearing in the center as the creator of the world. To his right, we can see Mary alongside John the Baptist. Other saints can be recognized by specific characteristics. For example, we can distinguish Peter by the two keys he is holding. We can make out Saint Catherine of Alexandria with the spiked wheel, the kneeling Saint Sebastian with the arrows in his hand, and on the far right-hand side, Saint Andrew with the X-shaped cross on which he was crucified and that bears his name. One striking figure underneath Christ and to the right is always puzzled scholars. It's a portrait of Saint Bartholomew. He was put to death by being skinned alive. This figure of Bartholomew has been alleged to be a portrait of Pope Paul III. This interpretation is admittedly disputed, but there can be no dispute that the face on the skin removed from Bartholomew is a self-portrait of Michelangelo. This was Michelangelo's way of drawing attention to his own martyrdom for having to create this fresco when he was over 60 years of age. The lower section of the painting describes the events of Christ's judgment of the world. Jesus is separating the chosen ones from the damned. In the middle, we can see the trumpeting angels of the apocalypse. Those facing the chosen ones are showing them the book of life, whereas those turned towards the damned are holding out the considerably thicker book of the dead.