Originally painted by Michelangelo in the late 1400s, the Vatican's Sistine Chapel frescoes were painstakingly restored between 1981 and 1995, provoking great controversy. Michelangelo's original task hard required him to construct elaborate scaffolding and to spend years of his life lying on his back to pain the ceiling; the restoration was no less difficult. For centuries dust and soot had obscured the brilliance of the frescoes' coloration, the intricacy of their detail, and the eloquence of their design. Now, however, every lunette, every ceiling fresco, and the magnificent just-restored Last Judgment can be seen in a new light in the full-color illustrations of this exciting book. Each New and Old Testament scene is identified and explained in great detail, with investigations into the evolution of their designs. Photographs and descriptions of the restoration process will prove endlessly fascinating, and the insights of the project's technical overseer provide readers with an inside look at the past, present, and future of the Sistine Chapel.