The Last Judgment (1923.34)
Tommy Leimkuhler, College of the Holy Cross, Class of 2025
The Last Judgment (1923.34) is located in the European Gallery (212).
The Last Judgment is understood, in Christianity, to take place at the end of time, when Jesus returns to earth (the Second Coming) and all souls are judged. Here, Jesus’s body displays the wounds from his crucifixion, showing the sacrifice he made as the savior of humanity. A river of fire flows from Jesus’s feet, separating the souls of the blessed on the left, who are fully clothed and kneeling in worship of Jesus, and the souls of the damned on the right, who are naked and beaten by demons. The Virgin Mary, John the Baptist, and angels appear to either side and behind Jesus. While this painting was created in Italy in the early 1300s, the materials used to create it came from many faraway places. Blue paint, as seen in the oval-shaped mandorla behind Jesus, could incorporate the semiprecious stone lapis lazuli, mined in Afghanistan. The gold leaf used in Italy often came from the Ghanaian region of Africa, known as “the Gold Coast.”
