The Last Judgment (Memling) - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The Last Judgment is a triptych

Triptych

A triptych , from tri-= "three" + ptysso= "to fold") is a work of art which is divided into three sections, or three carved panels which are hinged together and can be folded shut or displayed open. It is therefore a type of polyptych, the term for all multi-panel works...

attributed to German painter Hans Memling

Hans Memling

Hans Memling was a German-born Early Netherlandish painter.-Life and works:Born in Seligenstadt, near Frankfurt in the Middle Rhein region, it is believed that Memling served his apprenticeship at Mainz or Cologne, and later worked in the Netherlands under Rogier van der Weyden...

and painted between 1467 and 1471. It is now in the National Museum

National Museum, Gdańsk

National Museum in Gdańsk , established in 1972 , is one of the main branches of Poland's National Museum system....

in Gdańsk

Gdansk

Gdańsk is a Polish city on the Baltic coast, at the centre of the country's fourth-largest metropolitan area.The city lies on the southern edge of Gdańsk Bay , in a conurbation with the city of Gdynia, spa town of Sopot, and suburban communities, which together form a metropolitan area called the...

in Poland

Poland

Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

. It was commissioned by Angelo Tani, an agent of the Medici

Medici

The House of Medici or Famiglia de' Medici was a political dynasty, banking family and later royal house that first began to gather prominence under Cosimo de' Medici in the Republic of Florence during the late 14th century. The family originated in the Mugello region of the Tuscan countryside,...

at Bruges

Bruges

Bruges is the capital and largest city of the province of West Flanders in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is located in the northwest of the country....

but was captured by a privateer

Privateer

A privateer is a private person or ship authorized by a government by letters of marque to attack foreign shipping during wartime. Privateering was a way of mobilizing armed ships and sailors without having to spend public money or commit naval officers...

from Danzig (Gdańsk

Gdansk

), Poland

Poland

. (A lengthy lawsuit against the Hanseatic League

Hanseatic League

The Hanseatic League was an economic alliance of trading cities and their merchant guilds that dominated trade along the coast of Northern Europe...

demanded its return to Italy.) It was placed in the Basilica of the Assumption

St. Mary's Church, Gdansk

St. Mary's Church or, properly, Basilica of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary is a Roman Catholic church in Gdańsk, Poland, which is the largest brick church in the world. It was begun in 1379. St. Mary's Church (Polish: Bazylika Mariacka, German: Marienkirche) or, properly, Basilica of...

but in the 20th century it was moved to its present location.

The central panel shows Jesus

Jesus

Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...

sitting in Judgment on the world, while St Michael the Archangel is weighing souls and driving the Damned

Damnation

Damnation is the concept of everlasting divine punishment and/or disgrace, especially the punishment for sin as threatened by God . A damned being "in damnation" is said to be either in Hell, or living in a state wherein they are divorced from Heaven and/or in a state of disgrace from God's favor...

towards Hell

Hell

In many religious traditions, a hell is a place of suffering and punishment in the afterlife. Religions with a linear divine history often depict hells as endless. Religions with a cyclic history often depict a hell as an intermediary period between incarnations...

. (The sinner in St. Michael's right-hand pan is a donor portrait

Donor portrait

A donor portrait or votive portrait is a portrait in a larger painting or other work showing the person who commissioned and paid for the image, or a member of his, or her, family...

of Tommaso Portinari

Tommaso Portinari

Tommaso Portinari was an Italian banker for the Mèdici bank in Bruges. He was a member of a prominent Florentine family, coming from Portico di Romagna, near Forlì; that family had included Dante's muse, Beatrice...

.) On the left hand panel, the Saved

Beatific vision

The beatific vision - in Christian theology is the ultimate direct self communication of God to the individual person, when she or he reaches, as a member of redeemed humanity in the communion of saints, perfect salvation in its entirety, i.e. heaven...

are being guided into Heaven

Heaven

Heaven, the Heavens or Seven Heavens, is a common religious cosmological or metaphysical term for the physical or transcendent place from which heavenly beings originate, are enthroned or inhabit...

by St Peter and Angels. On the right-hand panel, the Damned are being dragged to Hell.

External links

The Last Judgement Triptych

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See also

External links