Find out more at the Heaven on Earth exhibition page; and if you can't make it to Washington, D.C. before August, you can still enjoy highlights from the exhibit in a slide show (Flash player required).
Boon-work was usually an obligation -- but not always.

This bronze statue of David by Donatello is the first large-scale, free-standing nude statue of the Renaissance. It is also a superb example the artist's extraordinary talent.
Find out more at the Heaven on Earth exhibition page; and if you can't make it to Washington, D.C. before August, you can still enjoy highlights from the exhibit in a slide show (Flash player required).
Since then, the Codex Sinaiticus, believed to have been written in the fourth century, has remained in pieces in Britain, Egypt, Russia and Germany. Now the surviving pages have been digitized and brought together in the Codex Sinaiticus project. Biblical scholars and theologians will find particular significance in the portions contained in the Codex that aren't found in modern editions, as well as elements that are missing from the Codex. However, Juan Garces, the British Library project curator, said "It's for everyone, really a wide audience."
Find out more in the article by Richard Allen Greene at CNN.com or the item by Nardine Saad at the Associated Press.
After seven years of restoration work on paintings in the Pauline Chapel inside the Vatican, the last frescoes Michelangelo ever painted are now more clear and vivid than they've been in centuries. In the process of restoration, a figure that some art experts believe may be a self-portrait by the artist was spotted. The image in question is a bearded figure on horseback in a blue turban in The Crucifixion of St Peter.
Find out more about this intriguing discovery in the article by Richard Owen in the UK Times Online, where you can see the fresco in its entirety and a close-up of the figure in question. And have a look at other portraits of Michelangelo in this image gallery by your Guide.
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