For five hundred years the Sistine chapel has been one of the most important places tor the Christian faith and for the entire history of art. The paintings that cover the walls and ceiling of the chapel are unique masterpieces portraying the story of humanity as intended by God, from the Creation to the Last Judgement. Many prominent figures have contributed to the construction, decoration and history of the chapel. Two popes of the Delia Rovere family, Sixtus IV and Julius II, more than anyone else, were responsible for making the chapel into the building we know today. The artists who gave expression to their projects were some of the greatest names in 15th-century painting— Perugino, Botticelli, Signorelli and Ghirlandaio—but the real giant among them was Michelangelo Buonarroti, the creator of the ceiling frescoes and the Last Judgement. In recent years master craftsmen have contributed to restoring these frescoes to their original splendor.

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