Which central scene shows Noah making an offering?

The central scene showing Noah making an offering is “The Sacrifice of Noah.”

This small panel is the first of the three Genesis scenes devoted to Noah on Michelangelo’s ceiling. It depicts a sacrifice made after Noah and his family survive the Great Flood, placing the offering within a story of deliverance, gratitude, and renewed relationship with God. The scene is positioned before the larger panel of the Flood and the later image of Noah’s drunkenness.

The title is not entirely free from historical debate. Giorgio Vasari and Ascanio Condivi identified the image as the sacrifices of Cain and Abel, but later interpretation has generally favored Noah’s post-Flood sacrifice. The Sistine Chapel ceiling’s modern scene list therefore calls it The Sacrifice of Noah.

It is easy to confuse this panel with The Great Flood, which is the dramatic, wide central image showing Noah’s Ark and people struggling against rising water. Another nearby panel, The Drunkenness of Noah, shows Noah after the Flood cultivating vines and becoming intoxicated. Together, the three scenes trace Noah’s crisis, survival, and moral aftermath.