[Duchess]

The Agony and the Ecstasy: Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel ceiling turns 500

It is one of the most famous works of art in the world - so why isn't the Vatican making more of its big anniversary?

Perhaps second only in fame to Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa, Michelangelo's magnificent frescoes on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel opened to the public for the first time 500 years ago this week
in St Peter's Basilica in Rome.

This masterpiece of Renaissance art, at around 40 metres long by 13 metres wide (460 square metres), includes 343 figures with nine central panels depicting the stories of the Old Testament from the Creation to the fall of man.

The narrative on the ceiling shows God creating the Sun, Moon and Earth, Adam and Eve, the temptation and expulsion from the Garden of Eden and the story of Noah's Ark.