Restoration of the Sistine Chapel frescoes time, monotonous, "tend[ing] towards dull red and grey". Mancinelli writes that the restoration reveals "a new Michelangelo" as a colourist and that this "new character makes much better sense of his historical position". He goes on to say that perceptive viewers of the Sistine Chapel ceiling have always been aware that the range of colours used was very different from that which could be seen, and included the same pinks, apple greens, oranges, yellows and pale blues that were employed by Michelangelo's teacher, Domenico Ghirlandaio, one of the most competent fresco painters of the Renaissance. The brilliant palette ought to
Sistine Chapel ceiling completed by four large corner "pendentives", each illustrating a dramatic Biblical story. The narrative elements of the ceiling illustrate that God made the World as a perfect creation and put humanity into it, that humanity fell into disgrace and was punished by death and by separation from God. Humanity then sank further into sin and disgrace, and was punished by the Great Flood. Through a lineage of Ancestors – from Abraham to Joseph – God sent the saviour of humanity, Christ Jesus. The coming of the Saviour was prophesied by Prophets of Israel and Sibyls of the Classical world. The