In collaboration with the Vatican Museums, this extravagantly illustrated volume featuring three sumptuous gatefolds is published to coincide with a major immersive exhibition featuring life-size photographs of the Sistine Chapel—the most precisely detailed ever captured—Michelangelo’s greatest work.

The only publication with the official support of the Vatican and which ties in directly to this immersive exhibition—truly an event of historic magnitude—this book is the result of years of careful micro-photography faithfully documenting the Sistine Chapel in lifelike glory.

Thanks to innovative Gigapixel technology, this book showcases the lush original colors and remarkable details of Michelangelo’s masterpiece in a series of unprecedented close-up photographs, that have also been assembled into a groundbreaking exhibition of life-size reproductions opening in Houston before traveling to several other North American venues. The volume explores the history of the Sistine Chapel, the frescoes found on the side walls and ceiling, and finally, Michelangelo’s magnum opus: The Last Judgement.

Considered "the greatest representation of human art and spirituality" in the world, the Sistine Chapel is one of the world’s most visited artworks with nearly 22,000 daily visitors, yet it is also part of one of the world’s most sacred spaces, a consecrated chapel at the Vatican, the heart of the Roman Catholic Church. This book is an essential tool in helping the viewer understand the beauty and meaning of this most sublime work of art.

About The Author

Asia Graziano is the author of a critically acclaimed monograph on Artemisia Gentileschi. Her writing on art history regularly appears in several Italian academic journals.