The Sistine Chapel: paradise in Rome

Prologue at the door of heaven

Paradise in contention: the "foremost chapel in the world" and Sixtus IV

Triumphal gate and entrance hall to the city of God: Michelangelo's ceiling frescoes and Julius II

Tabernacle, Solomon's temple, and the heavenly Jerusalem: Raphael's tapestries and Leo X

The gate to eternity: Michelangelo's Last judgment, Clement VII, and Paul III

Epilogue in purgatory: art history and the myth of the Sistine Chapel.