At the opposite end, over the great door, were two pictures by Domenico
del Ghirlandaio, representing the Resurrection of Christ, and Michael
contending with Satan for the Body of Moses, completing the series of the
lives of the Redeemer and of his prototype in the Old Testament: Moses,
the Deliverer. These last two works were destroyed for the ridiculous
caricatures of Arrigo Fiammingo and Mattei da Lecce. Ultimately the
Tapestry woven after the cartoons by Raphael, now at South Kensington
Museum, completed the cycle of decoration down to the ground level.
[Image #25]
THE PROPHET EZEKIEL
SISTINE CHAPEL, ROME
(_By permission of the Fratelli Alinari, Florence_)
When Pope Julius prevented Michael Angelo from going on with his beloved
project of the Tomb and made him paint the vault, the master set to work
to produce a similar conception to the Tomb in a painted form. The vault
became a great temple of painted marble and painted sculptures raised in
mid-air above the walls of the chapel. The cornices and pilasters are of
simple Renaissance architecture, the only ornaments he allowed himself to
use being similar to those he would have used as a sculptor. Acorns, the
family device of the della Rovere, rams' skulls, and scallop shells, and
the one theme of decoration that Michael Angelo always delighted in--the
human figure. The Prophets and Sibyls took the positions occupied by the
principal figures designed for the Tomb, like the great statue of Moses.
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