A stupendous performance, which shows what marvellous power was in this man of turning lines in foreshortening and perspective.

Now in the spaces that are below the lunettes, as well as in those above, which have a triangular shape, are painted all the genealogy, or, I should say, all the ancestors of the Saviour, except the triangles at the corners, which come together, and so, two make up one of double the area.

In one then of these, above the wall of the Last Judgment on the right hand,( 42) is seen how Aman, by command of King Ahasuerus, was hung upon a cross; and this was because, in his pride and arrogance, he wished to hang Mordecai, the uncle Queen Ester, for not honouring him with a reverence as he passed by.

In another corner is the story of the bronze serpent, lifted by Moses on a staff, in which the children of Israel, wounded and ill-treated by lively little serpents, are healed by looking up.

Here Michael Angelo has shown admirable force in those figures that are struggling to free themselves from the coils of the serpents.