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| Frans Francker II, Last Judgment Flemish, 1606 Private Collection |
“Jesus said to his disciples:
“There will be signs in the sun,
the moon, and the stars,
and on earth nations will be in
dismay,
perplexed by the roaring of the
sea and the waves.
People will die of fright
in anticipation of what is coming
upon the world,
for the powers of the heavens
will be shaken.
And then they will see the Son of
Man
coming in a cloud with power and
great glory.
But when these signs begin to
happen,
stand erect and raise your heads
because your redemption is at
hand.
“Beware that your hearts do not
become drowsy
from carousing and drunkenness
and the anxieties of daily life,
and that day catch you by
surprise like a trap.
For that day will assault
everyone
who lives on the face of the
earth.
Be vigilant at all times
and pray that you have the
strength
to escape the tribulations that
are imminent
and to stand before the Son of
Man.”
Luke 21:25-28, 34-36
(Gospel for the First Sunday of Advent, Year C)
Each year, at the beginning of Advent, the Church reminds us of the prophecies of Jesus and asks us to stop, to ponder and to prepare for our own deaths and the final end of all life.
Just before Luke begins the story of the Passion of Jesus he presents
us with a series of prophecies made by Jesus.
Some of them are narrowly applicable to the destruction of Jerusalem by
the Roman armies, which took place in 70 AD, about 35 years after the death and
resurrection of Jesus and within the lifetime of the evangelist. However, most of the prophecy is more widely
applicable and seems to point to a more worldwide event, usually believed to be
the end of the world. This passage from
the Gospel of Luke is the one chosen by the Church for the Gospel Cycle of Year
C. Signs of the end are referred to and
so are the effects it will have on people.
Most will be “perplexed”, some “will die of fright” (Luke 21:25-26). Those who are vigilant have the best chance of
facing the predicted coming of the “Son of Man”, Jesus, the great judge of this world, of all worlds and of all time.
These signs of the end have inspired artists in many of their
compositions in imagining the end of the world and the Last Judgment. Beginning with the Middle Ages they have
shown us the image of Jesus, “coming in a cloud with power and great glory” as the dead rise from their
graves and the living tremble in fear as all prepare to “stand before the Son
of Man” and give Him an account of the way they have lived their lives. It is, in fact, the image of the Last
Judgment (Luke 21:27).
The image of the majestic Christ appears early in Christian art, in the
fourth century, just after the end of the persecutions, at the same time that
the first churches were under construction.
One such image appears in the mausoleum of the Christian princess,
Constantina, daughter of Constantine, the Emperor who removed the legal
prohibitions on Christianity.
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| Christ in Majesty Roman, c. 350 Rome, Mausoleum of Constantina (Santa Costanza) |
This image of power passes into Byzantine art and then into Western European medieval art. While it is the image of the Lord of the Universe, it is not yet an image of the awesome Judge of the World. That aspect of the image began to appear around the year 1000 with the art of the Reichenau school of manuscript painting, which was patronized by the Ottonian dynasty of Holy Roman Emperors.
This image, derived from that of the Roman Emperors, has been the dominant image of the Christ, as the Great Judge of the World from that day to the present. It has undergone some modification, as we shall see, but the basic image of the central, commanding figure has remained basically the same through time.
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| Last Judgment From the Book of Pericopes of Henry II German (Reichenau), c.1007-1012 Munich, Bayerisches Staatsbibliothek MS Clm 4452, fol. 202r |
This image, derived from that of the Roman Emperors, has been the dominant image of the Christ, as the Great Judge of the World from that day to the present. It has undergone some modification, as we shall see, but the basic image of the central, commanding figure has remained basically the same through time.
What has changed are the details of the composition that surround the
figure of Christ. In the Reichenau
paintings He appears very much like an Emperor, surrounded by his court (in
this case, the Apostles and angels) and elevated above those who are being
judged.
By the end of the eleventh century, the figure of Christ has been
surrounded by an almond shaped frame, known as a mandorla.
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| Last Judgment French, c. 1090 Charlieu, Church of Saint-Fortunat |
In many of the images of the Last Judgment that were placed over the
doors of medieval churches, Christ appears in a mandorla. In France, this was especially true in
cathedrals and other churches built in what is called the Romanesque style.
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| Last Judgment French, c. 1125-1135 Conques, Abbey Church of Sainte-Foy |
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| Gislebertus, Last Judgment French, c. 1130-1145 Autun, Cathedral of Saint-Lazare |
In the later buildings in the Gothic style, Christ still appears as the
Emperor amid his court, but the mandorla has disappeared and his gestures are
more benign than previously. He shows His wounds and is often accompanied by an angel who holds the cross from His sacrifice. He is also often
joined by two visually subordinate figures who plead in prayer for the souls
being judged, the Virgin Mary and either of the two biblical Saint Johns, John
the Evangelist or John the Baptist.
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| Last Judgment (South Transept) French, c.1210 Chartres, Cathedral of Notre-Dame |
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| Last Judgment French, c. 1220 Paris, Cathedral of Notre-Dame |
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| Last Judgment German, c. 1225-1237 Bamberg, Cathedral |
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| Last Judgment Spanish, c. 1250-1300 Leon, Cathedral |
Both of these compositional types, Christ as Emperor in the mandorla,
or Christ the benevolent without the mandorla, transferred from stone to paint
and have remained the typical ways in which artists have imagined this
important theme.
 |
| Last Judgment Byzantine, c. 1240-1300 Florence, Baptistry |
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| Nicola Pisano, Last Judgment Italian, c. 1260 Pisa, Baptistry |
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| Cimabue, Last Judgment, Christ Italian, c. 1277-1280 Assisi, Basilica of San Francesco, Upper Church |
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| Pietro Cavallini, Last Judgment (center) Italian, c. 1300 Rome, Santa Cecilia in Trastevere |
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| Giotto, Last Judgment Italian, 1306 Padua, Arena-Scrovegni Chapel |
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| Last Judgment From the Missal of Saint Eulalia Spanish, 1403 Barcelona, Cathedral |
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| Lorenzo Monaco, Last Judgment From an Antiphonary Italian, 1406 New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Robert Lehman Collection Item 1975.1.2485, fol. 124v |
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| Fra Angelico and Workshop, Last Judgment Italian, c. 1431 Florence, Museo di San Marco |
Also, appearing in later paintings are two new elements, the rainbow and the clouds. The origin of the rainbow is biblical. In the descriptions of the throne of God in both the Book of Ezekiel and the Book of Revelation are the basis for the first image, that of the rainbow. The biblical texts, Ezekiel, Chapter 2 and Revelation Chapters 1 and 4, describe the throne of God with images borrowed from their experience of the earth: from jewels, from the weather and from fire. An example is this passage from Ezekiel 2 “Just like the appearance of the rainbow in the clouds on a rainy day so was the appearance of brilliance that surrounded him” (Ezekiel 2:28). Such elements from their descriptions often appear as part of the surroundings of the figure of Jesus in paintings of the Last Judgment.
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| Last Judgment From a Book of Hours French (Rouen). 1450-1500 Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France MS Nouvelle acquisition latine 3134, fol. 67v |
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| Last Judgment From the Ottheinrich Bible German (Regensburg), c. 1400-1600 Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek MS Hss Cgm 8010(1), fol. 81 |
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| Last Judgment German c. 1460-1470 Cologne, Wallraf-Richartz Museum & Fondation Corbaud |
 Master Francois, Last Judgment From Les Sept articles de la foi by Jean Chappuis French, c. 1470 Chicago, Art Institute |
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| Joos van Cleve, Last Judgment Dutch, c. 1520-1525 New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art |
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| Jan Provoost, Last Judgment Flemish, 1525 Bruges, Groeninge Museum |
Some images pick up additional details from the Book of
Revelation, such as the sword described in Revelation 1:16.
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| Last Judgment German, After 1400 Wuerzburg, Episcopal Collection |
In others angels surrounding Jesus hold the instruments of the Passion as a reminder of the act that redeemed the world and those people who will be saved at the end.
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| Last Judgment From the Psalter of St. Louis and of Blanche of Castille French, c. 1225 Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France MS Arsenal 1186, fol. 170r |
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| Last Judgment From Jugement et des XV signes French, c. 1250 Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France MS Arsenal 3516, fol. 154v |
 | ||
| Stefan Lochner, Last Judgment German, c. 1435 Cologne, Wallraf-Richartz Museum
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| Last Judgment Spanish, c. 1486-1515 Burgos, Church of San Nicolas de Bari |
In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries many images of the Last
Judgment were painted in the form of triptychs, three paneled paintings, used
as altarpieces in churches or for private devotional aids in the home. In these pictures the central panel was the
Last Judgment while the left wing typically showed the reception of the saved
and blessed into heaven, and the right wing showed the torments that awaited
the arriving souls of the damned. These
were frequently narrative, as the wings continued stories that were already
beginning in the central panel. One
strain of narratives among the painters of the Low Countries, deriving from Jan
van Eyck’s diptych in the Metropolitan Museum (see the Judgment panel above), feature the figure of Saint
Michael the Archangel, vigorously thrusting the damned into hell or weighing
them in the balance to determine the amount of good and evil deeds done in
their lives.
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| Rogier van der Weyden, Last Judgment Flemish, c. 1446-1452 Beaune, Musee de l'Hotel-Dieu |
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| Fra Angelico, Last Judgment Italian, c 1450 Berlin, Gemaeldegalerie der Staatliche Museen zu Berlin |
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| Hans Memling, Last Judgment Triptych German, c. 1467-1471 Strasbourg, Musee des Beaux-Arts |
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| Hieronymous Bosch and Studio, Last Judgment Triptych Dutch, c. 1480-1520 Bruges Groeningemusuem, |
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| Master of the Orleans Triptych, Last Judgment French, c. 1500 New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Robert Lehman Collection |
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| Hieronymous Bosch, Last Judgment Triptych German, c. 1504-1508 Vienna, Akademie der bildenden Kuenste |
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| Bernaert van Orley, Last Judgment Flemish, c. 1519-1525 Antwerp, Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten |
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| Jean Bellegambe, Last Judgment Flemish, c. 1525 Berlin, Gemaeldegalerie der Staatliche Museen zu Berlin |
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| Lucas van Leyden, Last Judgment Dutch, 1527 Leiden, Stedelkjk Museum De Lakenhal |
As one might expect, Michelangelo Buonarotti, that powerhouse of
imagination and breaker of artistic rules, changed the status quo. Always a reluctant painter, he nevertheless
changed painting forever with his dynamic reimagining of the Last Judgment
scene for the altar wall of the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican.
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| Michelangelo Buonarotti, Last Judgment (full) Italian, 1537-1541 Vatican, Sistine Chapel |
His Sistine Last Judgment scandalized many for its depiction of
nakedness, even though images of the Last Judgment in both sculpture and
painting had frequently shown the resurrected souls and always the damned souls
as naked figures. It was not the nudity
of his figures, but the of virtually all the figures (only the Virgin Mary is
fully clothes), including Christ, that upset the critics.
However, artists, while mostly rejecting the nudity (at least for those
in heaven), grasped the dynamism of the composition and borrowed massively from
it.
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| Pieter Pourbus, Last Judgment Flemish, 1551 Bruges, Groeninge Museum |
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| Tintoretto, Last Judgment Italian, c. 1560-1562 Venice, Church of the Madonna dell'Orto |
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| Frans Floris, Last Judgment Flemish, 1565 Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum |
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| Camillo Procaccini, Last Judgment Italian, c. 1585-1587 Reggio Emilia, Church of San Prospero
|
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| Raphael Coxcie, Last Judgment Flemish, c. 1590-1610 Ghent, Museum voor Schone Kunsten |
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| Hieronymous Francken II, Last Judgment Flemish, c. 1605-1610 Salzburg, Residenzgalerie |
They often introduced some of the elements of the medieval images, such
as the mandorla, now seen as a light-filled emanation from Christ, and the instruments
of the Passion, but the compositions were no longer static. Human forms writhe in prayer or torment,
while military angels send them to hell.
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| Rubens, Last Judgment Flemish, 1617 Munich, Alte Pinakothek |
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| Rubens, Small Last Judgment Flemish, c. 1612-1620 Munich, Alte Pinachothek |
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| Jacob van Campen, Last Judgment Dutch, c. 1640-1657 Amersfoort, St. Joriskerk |
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| Felix Anton Schleffler, The Last Judgment, The Damned German, 1749 Wroclaw (Poland), Church of St. John the Baptist |
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| Peter von Cornelius, Last Judgment German, c. 1836-1839 Munich, Church of Saint Louis
This picture owes nearly as much to Raphael, especially from the Disputa, as it does to Michelangelo. |
©
Margaret Duffy, 2018
Excerpts from the Lectionary for Mass for Use in the Dioceses of the United States of America, second typical edition © 2001, 1998, 1997, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., Washington, DC. Used with permission. All rights reserved. No portion of this text may be reproduced by any means without permission in writing from the copyright owner.
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