Michelangelo painted the Sistine Chapel from 1508 to 1541, during a time of transformation for not only the Catholic Church but for art as well. Pope Julius II originally commissioned Michelangelo to paint the ceiling. It was almost two and one-half centuries later that he again called upon Michelangelo to paint the back wall as well. His original project would take him for years, 1508-1512. At this time Rome was in the midst of a Renaissance. In its triumphant days, the Renaissance looked away from duty and holiness as the standard and the law of life. The proliferate freedom of opinion and the laxity in morals allowed Michelangelo to challenge the limitations set upon him by the Pope. In the beginning, the Pope asked him to replace the original ceiling with trompe l'oeil coffers. Later adding to that request, the painting of the Twelve Apostles seated on thrones. Ultimately Michelangelo's image would reflect a chronological telling of the Creation, followed by the Temptation, the Fall, and Expulsion from Paradise, and God's final destruction of man via the Flood.
             In this narrative sequence, there is discernable segregation of good from evil. In painting the ceiling Michelangelo used light colors of white and pastel, in contrast to the darker colors of the Last Judgment. Another conspicuous comparison is the intertwining of good and evil in the Last Judgment that is absent in the ceiling. In the chronological telling of the Old Testament, the story goes that evil proceeds the good. In the Last Judgment, there is an amalgamation of the "writhing swarm of rising and falling humanity" which strays from the antiquated belief that the Saved are neatly separated from the Damned. In viewing the Sistine Chapel in its entirety it is obvious that the conflicts within the church present themselves in Michelangelo's work. The influence of the battles within the Church, the Sak, and ultimately the Reformation would shape the conception of the L...