Which biblical scene is painted directly above the Sistine Chapel altar?

The Last Judgment is painted directly above the Sistine Chapel altar.

Michelangelo painted this monumental fresco on the chapel’s altar wall between about 1536 and 1541, during the pontificates of Clement VII and Paul III. It depicts Christ at the end of time judging humanity, with the saved rising toward Heaven and the damned descending toward punishment.

The fresco occupies the wall behind the altar and is separate from Michelangelo’s earlier ceiling cycle. The ceiling illustrates scenes from Genesis, while The Last Judgment presents an apocalyptic Christian vision based on the Second Coming of Christ.

A common mix-up is to call the altar-wall painting a ceiling fresco. It is a wall fresco, and its huge field of blue and flesh-colored figures replaced an earlier decoration. The work’s energetic composition and dramatic figures made it one of the most influential images of the Italian Renaissance.