Which Renaissance painter created the Sistine Chapel fresco The Temptation of Christ?

Sandro Botticelli created the Sistine Chapel fresco The Temptation of Christ.

Botticelli painted the fresco during the chapel’s original decoration campaign in the late fifteenth century. The project, organized under Pope Sixtus IV, brought several leading Florentine and Umbrian artists to the Vatican before Michelangelo painted the ceiling decades later.

The Temptation of Christ illustrates episodes from the Gospel accounts of Christ’s temptation by the Devil. Its architectural setting includes a classical temple and crowds of figures, combining the biblical narrative with visual references familiar to Renaissance viewers. Botticelli also contributed other scenes to the chapel, including The Punishment of the Rebels and The Trials of Moses.

The fresco is sometimes wrongly attributed to Michelangelo because it is in the same chapel. Michelangelo’s work there consists chiefly of the ceiling and The Last Judgment, while the side-wall cycle includes works by Botticelli, Perugino, Ghirlandaio, and other painters.