The Sistine Chapel in the Vatican owes its name to Pope Sixtus IV (1471-84) who commissioned it. The three-storey brick building was created to serve as a space for meetings of the papal court. It was ...

The Florentine artist spent four years painting the challenging chapel against his will, but would have much rather been sculpting - Lucas Schifres/Getty Images Contributor Michelangelo never wanted ...

The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican is one of the greatest artworks of all time. Painted by Michelangelo in the early 1500s, the images were showing the effects of time by the 1980s. We ...

Perhaps second only in fame to Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa, Michelangelo's magnificent frescoes on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel opened to the public for the first time 500 years ago this week ...

NPR's Scott Detrow speaks with art historian Kim Butler about the artwork that adorns the walls of the Sistine Chapel and its significance ahead of the conclave to elect the next pope. The College of ...

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As the papal conclave is set to begin to elect a new pope, the eyes of the world are on the Sistine Chapel, which will hold the Catholic cardinals as they cast their votes for the next leader of the ...