““There is so much information and decoration that this, the world’s largest fresco painting at about twelve thousand square feet, seems overstuffed and overdone. Let us be clear: it is—and on purpose. Think of a master magician performing sleight-of-hand tricks. The prestidigitator will be making so many flourishes, grandiose gestures, and distracting movements with one hand that you will never notice the real operation happening in the other hand. So it is with the artwork in the Sistine Chapel.””
