Last Judgment
All Titles
- Last Judgment
- Last Judgement
- View: Interior showing ceiling and altar wall (Last Judgment)
Dublin Core
Title
Last Judgment
Last Judgement
View: Interior showing ceiling and altar wall (Last Judgment)
Subject
New Testament; saints; Jesus Christ; Paul III, Pope, 1468-1549; second coming of Christ; apocalypse; damned
Description
Michelangelo’s commission to decorate the altar wall of the Sistine Chapel dates from 1534, the final year of Clement VII’s pontificate. According to Vasari, the project was taken over without alteration by his successor, the Farnese pope Paul III. For a papal establishment already chastened by the Sack of Rome, it seems likely that the fresco was intended as a powerful reminder of the Four Last Things: Death, Judgement, Heaven and Hell. Two factors contributed to the impact of this message: the fresco’s unusual position on the altar wall (representations of the Last Judgement were normally placed on the entrance wall of ecclesiastical buildings) and the removal of Perugino’s altarpiece, with its comforting image of the Virgin, as the focal point of the chapel.
Creator
Michelangelo Buonarroti (Italian painter, 1475-1564)
Source
Description: Grove Art Online; http://www.oxfordartonline.com/
Date
1535-1541 (creation)
Contributor
Fredlund, William
Rights
publicDomain
Relation
part of Sistine Chapel
Format
pigment on plaster
539.3 in (height) x 472.4 in (width)
Type
fresco (painting)
Identifier
mich186x.jpg
Coverage
Sistine Chapel (Rome (Vatican City), Santa Sede (Holy See), Italy); Palace of the Vatican
Renaissance
Citation
Michelangelo Buonarroti (Italian painter, 1475-1564), “Last Judgment,” Institute Images Online, accessed December 5, 2019, http://westerncivart.com/items/show/3024.
Geolocation
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