There is no argument. Old Testament God (OTG) was awesome - in the truest sense of the word. Formidable and capable of inspiring great fear. Excellent and terrifying. Although Botticelli doesn't paint the depths of Hell yawning open ready to swallow the 250-odd dissenters in Moses' ranks, it's implied. Three scenes make up this fresco meant to be read from the right register to the far left register before settling on the the center register. Besides illustrating OTG's overall dominance with triumphant pointed fingers - looking at you Joshua - and pathetically cowering Levites, Botticelli sends Pope Sixtus IV's clear message - no one messes with the papacy without consequences. 

The inscription on the Arch of Constantine makes it all the more clear. Translated from Latin as NEITHER DOTH ANY MAN TAKE THE HONOUR TO HIMSELF, BUT HE THAT IS CALLED BY GOD, AS AARON WAS, the warning roars out of the fresco and towers over the human struggle. The Latin title of this painting is Conturbatio, or Revolution - a none-too-subtle reference to the Pope's recent violent war with Florence. Ironically, Sixtus picked the wrong painter to announce to the world his god-given power. 

Botticelli was the one to paint the tender portrait of Giuliano de' Medici after his murder. He splashed the Pazzi clan's prone corpses in fresco on the walls of the Piazza della Signoria. The same pope that commissioned the murder of Botticelli's young friend and benefactor and sought to unseat the Medici family in favor of the Pazzi family also commissioned the emotional but brilliant artist to glorify his reign. The same pope that ordered those vivid frescoes of the dead traitorous clergymen be smote from their walls was asking Botticelli to not only agree with his politics, but paint them favorably. This was a recipe for hijinks.

Nestled in the background of Punishment of Korah are two ships. A close look at the minuscule pennants flapping proudly off the mainmasts yields an even small coat of arms - you guessed it - the Medici coat of arms. Because of the way the fresco is placed in the Sistine chapel, the pennant is all but imperceptible - especially to the unappreciative and allegedly not-so-cultured pope. 

After the Pazzi conspiracy, the Medici family was hurting. The to-be-scion was dead, the daughters were married to the detestable Sfortza and della Rovere families, and the pope was mooching their favorite artist. But Punishment of Korah embodies the resilience of the Medici family at one of their darkest hours. Even if Pope Sixtus might be pointing sassily at them with his big paael ring glinting on his big papal finger, the Medici family crest will still proudly flap on, waiting for the most opportune time for revenge. And revenge they would have. Awesome, indeed.