…is the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.

…to paraphrase Goethe.

Have just completed my second tour of the Vatican Museum Sistine Chapel and i’m starting to get a good feeling about it. There’s alot of interesting, exciting brilliant art in there. Stuff I like talking about, and not just because I like talking: Michelangelo’s work on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel as well as the Last Judgment are indeed testaments to what one single solitary man, summoning the strength of all his gifts, mastered by his passion, and focused by his will, can accomplish. This cannot be overstated.

It is possible that soon I will cease to be impressed by this work but for now I hold in my mind the fact that this brilliant work of art was created as Michelangelo was in the process of learning how to fresco. That’s his practice round, as well as an unparalleled artistic triumph. That’s why it’s called geniuis.