The Last Judgment
Fra Angelico, 1431
The Last Judgment is a tempera panel by Fra Angelico, a painter of the Italian Renaissance, dated variously between about 1425 and 1431. It was commissioned by the Camaldolese Order for the newly elected abbot, the humanist Ambrogio Traversari, and was originally placed in the church of Santa Maria degli Angeli. It is now in the museum of San Marco in Florence. It should not be confused with another Last Judgment by the same artist, held in the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin.
The composition follows the standard arrangement of this subject in the period. At the top, Christ sits in judgement on a white throne, surrounded by angels, Mary, John and the saints. His left hand points down to Hell and his right up to Heaven. On his right, angels lead the saved through a garden toward a shining city; on his left, demons drive the damned toward torment. In the middle, the broken tombs open as the dead rise to be judged, and at the bottom Satan devours several of the condemned. The work makes the division between salvation and damnation that organises the story readable at a glance.
- Painter
- Fra Angelico
- Date
- 1431
- Medium
- tempera, panel
- Dimensions
- 105 × 210 cm
- Museum
- Museum of San Marco, Florence
- Movement
- Italian Renaissance
- Genre
- religious art
- Depicts
- angel
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