The Last Judgement

The Slovak National Gallery version of The Last Judgment originates in Italo-Byzantine art of the 13th century. It centers on the figure of Christ, on the main picture axis, enthroned in a white and gold mandorla covered with stars. Around and behind him are angels together in a row; while in the foreground, on either side, stand the Virgin as the Mother of Sorrows on the left, and Saint John the Baptist with an inscribed band on the right. The adjacent angels hold some of the Instruments of the Passion (arma Christi) – by the Virgin is depicted the cross with the crown of thorns and three nails, while by Saint John are the lance and the sponge and reed. The only spatial element in the image is the grey, rocky terrain underfoot – otherwise the golden plane of the background dominates. And yet, the rocks divide the figural group around Christ from the souls of sinners waiting for salvation. On the left (under Christ’s right arm in blessing) are two sarcophagi of saved souls, while on the right there burn in two tombs the souls of the damned. While the former group is represented by little figures clothed in neutral light robes, the painter took pains to differentiate the sinners; we can find amongst them a crowned king, burghers, but also a mitred bishop as well as some tonsured monks. 

The painting catches the eye because of its unusual horizontal format, topped by an indented ogee arch. The shape suggests a possible original function – that of an altar frontal (dossale in Italian). From the 13th century onward, similar panels were made independently of altarpieces; but their autonomous use a full century later must however be seen as anachronistic. 

The painting style is likewise conservative. It is bound to the tradition of Byzantine icon painting, particularly that of the Veneto, which from the early 13th century formed a gate to all of Latin Europe. This was also the reason why scholars have placed the panel into the Venetian and Paduan area (Pujmanová 1986). Nevertheless, the image is not an icon in the strict sense of the word, and the technology, composition as well as figural typology all point to Italian art of the Trecento. In contrast to icon painting, the emphasis is placed on facial modelling as well as on physical bodies concealed under garments. Apart from the colour harmonies of the robes, which are dominated by ochres and red tones, the painter is characterised by his favouring dark flesh tones, thin limbs of the Crucified Christ, small eyes and the heads of angels bordered with braids of hair. The haloes are always made with stamping the gilt background with point matrices. The entire composition is marked by a strict symmetry (including the stylisation of the rocky grounding), a tendency to reduce figures to types and by an almost decorative pathos.
 

Zuzana Ludiková ● LUDIKOVÁ, Zuzana - BURAN, Dušan. Talianska maľba = Italian Painting. Bratislava : Slovenská národná galéria, 2013. 242 strán. ISBN 9788080591748.