Michelangelo's work in the Sistine Chapel in Rome became an emblem for secular modernity and for a Promethean ideal of Romantic thought. In nineteenth century art, the pious stories that Michelangelo had depicted were transformed into writhing figures of demonic ambition and stature.  How did this happen?

In this lecture, Gabriel Pihas, Academic Director of the Rome Institute of Liberal Arts, will give an interpretation of Michelangelo's original program for the Sistine Chapel ceiling and the Last Judgment wall as awesome/terribile/deinotes, and try to show how it left room for the enduring modern interest of Michelangelo's work.