Abraham - Isaac - Jacob - Judah
by MICHELANGELO Buonarroti, Engraving
In the lunettes situated at the top of the altar wall, Michelangelo painted the first two groups of ancestors of Christ according to the sequence of the Gospel of St Matthew: Abraham-Isaac-Jacob-Judah and Perez-Hezron-Ram. The two frescoes were destroyed when the artist decided to extend the painting of the Last Judgment to the whole wall. However, they are shown in two drawings reproducing the whole vault (now in the collections of Windsor castle and the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford) and in two engravings by Adamo Ghisi.