Main description (English)

The Pauline Chapel was Michelangelo’s last fresco cycle. He was summoned by Pope Paul III Farnese to paint the new chapel built by Antonio da Sangallo the Younger in the Apostolic Palace. The Cappella Paolina replaced the old capella parva, which had been used to preserve the holy host and to elect the new pope in conclave. Michelangelo confined his work on the frescoes to painting the Conversion of St. Paul and the Crucifixion of St. Peter. Marcello Venusti continued the fresco cycle in 1549, but he had to stop working soon after the death of the Farnese pope in the same year. Michelangelo’s drawings and some of Venusti’s small scale paintings as well as other sources help to understand the original design of the Paolina.