Who painted The Last Judgment on the altar wall of the Sistine Chapel?

Michelangelo painted The Last Judgment on the altar wall of the Sistine Chapel.

The enormous fresco occupies the chapel’s altar wall and depicts the Second Coming of Christ and the final judgment of humanity. Pope Clement VII commissioned the project, and Pope Paul III continued it after Clement’s death. Michelangelo worked on it from 1536 until 1541, more than two decades after completing the ceiling.

The composition differs sharply from the ceiling’s orderly architectural divisions. Christ is placed near the center, while the surrounding figures rise, descend, or react to the judgment. The fresco includes saints, angels, the saved, and the damned. Some nude figures were later covered with painted draperies during the so-called “fig-leaf campaign,” especially after criticism of the work’s nudity. Those additions were partly removed or documented during modern conservation, but the painting remains Michelangelo’s work rather than a separate artist’s fresco.