The censorship by Braghettone

Nowadays, if images deemed inappropriate appear on TV or social media, they're blurred or covered with black bars to prevent them from offending or disturbing us. But did you know that censorship was practiced even atthe time of the great Renaissance masters?
One of the most famous examples is the censorship of Michelangelo's frescoes in the Sistine Chapel.
His Last Judgment, painted between 1536 and 1541, represents the moment when all human beings will be deemed worthy of Heaven or condemned based on the actions and thoughts that have characterized their existence. A dramatic episode, therefore, which the artist expresses by displaying his plastic virtuosism, painting hundreds of nude figures, thus in a state of extreme vulnerability before divine judgment. An absolute masterpiece, that has has enchanted and inspired artists and visitors from around the world for centuries. Yet, it was a highly controversial masterpiece, deemed inappropriate and scandalous by the Church.
About twenty years after the work's completion, in 1563, the Council of Trent concluded, a council convened to respond to the Protestant Reformation and reform the Catholic Church. It was a period of great change and censorship, affecting almost all the arts; not even the works of the most famous artists of the time were spared.
Religious authorities monitored all works to ensure clarity, legibility, decorum, and adherence to scripture. Consequently, the luxury and theatricality of Mannerism were frowned upon. Artists had to adapt to the new rules of style, and this brought about a new transformation in all art.
In 1564, it was decreed: "The paintings in the Apostolic Chapel are to be covered, while in other churches they are to be destroyed if they depict anything obscene or patently false."
Daniele Ricciarelli, or Daniele da Volterra, one of Michelangelo's followers who had died that same year, was commissioned to cover the nudity in the Sistine Chapel with breeches, painting them a secco over the master's original work. It's no surprise, then, that this censorious intervention earned the artist the nickname "Braghettone", from “braghe” (breeches).

While we don't like to think of Michelangelo's work as being altered or "defaced," the truth is that this intervention by Braghettone saved the master's frescoes from being removed. So, thankfully, the alteration was minimal, allowing us to admire them even today.