Ultimately the Tapestry woven after the cartoons by Raphael, now at South Kensington Museum, completed the cycle of decoration down to the ground level.
[Image #25] THE PROPHET EZEKIEL SISTINE CHAPEL, ROME (_By permission of the Fratelli Alinari, Florence_) When Pope Julius prevented Michael Angelo from going on with his beloved project of the Tomb and made him paint the vault, the master set to work to produce a similar conception to the Tomb in a painted form.

The vault became a great temple of painted marble and painted sculptures raised in mid-air above the walls of the chapel.

The cornices and pilasters are of simple Renaissance architecture, the only ornaments he allowed himself to use being similar to those he would have used as a sculptor.

Acorns, the family device of the della Rovere, rams' skulls, and scallop shells, and the one theme of decoration that Michael Angelo always delighted in--the human figure.

The Prophets and Sibyls took the positions occupied by the principal figures designed for the Tomb, like the great statue of Moses.
The Athletes at the corner of the ribs of the roof were in place of the bound captives, two of which are now in the Louvre, and the nine histories of the Creation and the Flood fill the panels like the bronze reliefs of the Tomb.