However, in other news (thanks to oculture for referring), you can now whirl around in a panoramic tour of the Sistine Chapel online. With wall frescoes by Perugino, Raphael & Botticelli, and a Last Judgement and ceiling by Michelangelo, it's quite a room.
Virtual Sistine Chapel (It takes a little while to load, but the waiting music is pretty.)
I remember years ago, a friend of mine gave a fascinating talk on the development of the Serpent figure from the Garden of Eden: it starts out being represented as a plain ole snake, but gradually gets a human face, which then develops into a recognisably female face. And over the centuries, more of the Root-of-All-Humanity's-Problems Serpent becomes ladylike, reaching its peak with Michelangelo.
Though the chapel still fills spectators with awe, here's Michelangelo's feeling on his work:
"I've already grown a goiter from this torture,
hunched up here like a cat in Lombardy
(or anywhere else where the stagnant water's poison).
My stomach's squashed under my chin, my beard's
pointing at heaven, my brain's crushed in a casket,
my breast twists like a harpy's. My brush,
above me all the time, dribbles paint
so my face makes a fine floor for droppings!"
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