The Sistine Chapel Revealed

The frescoes of the Sistine Chapel are often viewed as a striking study in the contrast between the middle and High Renaissance styles. On the one hand, the scenes painted on the chapel's walls by Botticelli, Ghirlandaio, Perugino, Rosselli, and Signorelli (1481-82), which depict parallel events in the lives of Moses and Jesus (and allegoricallylegitimize the power of the pope), exemplify the narrative art developed in quattrocento Florence, in which multiple incidents and numerous draped fig…