The Michelangelo biography I finished reading a couple of days ago talked at some length about the scandal of the "ignudi" who frame the small Biblical scenes that alternate with larger Biblical scenes along the vault of the Sistine ceiling. Twenty gigantic nude male pagans in contorted poses – with no possible Biblical excuse to exist at all – have always seemed sacrilegious to many. But the Popes – aristocratic and autocratic – ignored the fuss.
