Leonardo, The Last Supper, 1495-97, Milan, Santa Maria della Grazie

A huge mural painting, created by Leonardo da Vinci for his patron Duke Ludovico Sforza. It represents the scene of The Last Supper from the final days of Jesus, when he announces that one of his apostles would betray him. The theme was a traditional one for refectories, but Leonardo's interpretation gave it much greater realism and depth.

Michelangelo, Vault frescoes of the Sistine Chapel, 1508-12, Rome

Commissioned by Pope Julius II, for the ceiling of the large Papal Chapel built within the Vatican by Sixtus IV.  Central to the ceiling decoration are nine scenes from the Book of Genesis of which the Creation of Adam is the best known.

Michelangelo, The Last Judgment, 1534-41, Rome, Sistine Chapel

This largest single fresco of the century was commissioned by Pope Clement VII shortly before his death. The Last Judgment is a depiction of the second coming of Christ and the apocalypse. The souls of humans rise and descend to their fates, as judged by Christ surrounded by his saints. The Last Judgment was an object of a heavy dispute between Cardinal Carafa and Michelangelo: the artist was accused of immorality and intolerable obscenity, having depicted naked figures, with genitals in evidence, inside the most important church of Christianity.

Raphael, School of Athens, 1510, Stanza della Signatura, Vatical Palace

The Stanza della Segnatura was the first of the rooms to be decorated, and The School of Athens the second painting to be finished there, after La Disputa. The School of Athens represents the truth acquired through reason. Raphael does not entrust his illustration to allegorical figures, but rather groups the solemn figures of thinkers and philosophers together in a large, grandiose architectural framework.

Raphael, Disputa, 1509, Stanza della Signatura, Vatical Palace

Disputation of the Holy Sacrament. Together with The School of Athens, they can be seen as having a common theme: the revealed truth of the origin of all things, in other words the Trinity. This cannot be apprehended by intellect alone (philosophy), but is made manifest in the Eucharist.

Raphael, Parnaso, 1510, Stanza della Signatura, Vatical Palace

The third composition for the Stanza della Segnatura represents Parnassus, the dwelling place of Apollo and the Muses and the home of poetry, according to classical myth. Compositional harmony and visual counterpoint characterize the fresco: the groups of figures are bound together by continuous lines and the single characters are represented in opposed but corresponding poses.