In 1508, despite strong advice to the contrary, the powerful Pope Julius II commissioned Michelangelo to paint the ceiling of the newly restored Sistine Chapel. With little experience as a painter (though famed for his sculpture David), Michelangelo was reluctant to begin the massive project. Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling recounts the four extraordinary years Michelangelo spent laboring over the vast ceiling while the power politics and personal...

"A writer studies a famous work of art and finds herself and her own cultural moment revealed at its heart. Jeannie Marshall lived in Rome for ten years without visiting the Sistine Chapel: she didn't want to have a superficial experience of the frescos, but she wasn't sure how, amidst the crowds of tour groups and the noise of pop culture allusions, she could have anything but. What's more, she wondered what this very old, very Catholic art, created...

"In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the greatest artists of Renaissance Italy were summoned to Rome, where they decorated the walls and ceilings of the Vatican. Here they adorned the holy chapels and the private chambers of the popes with paintings recounting biblical narratives and classical themes, all brought to life in astonishing detail. Maurizio De Luca spent his forty-year career in the Vatican Museum, including fifteen years as head...