The Last Judgment is a painting

Painting

Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...

 by a Medeival Artist artist Fra Angelico

Fra Angelico

Fra Angelico , born Guido di Pietro, was an Early Italian Renaissance painter described by Vasari in his Lives of the Artists as having "a rare and perfect talent"...

. It was commissioned by the Camaldolese

Camaldolese

The Camaldolese monks and nuns are part of the Benedictine family of monastic communities which follow the way of life outlined in the Rule of St. Benedict, written in the 6th century...

 Order for the newly elected abbot, the humanist scholar Ambrogio Traversari. It is variously dated to c1425,, 1425-1430 and 1431. It was originally sited in the church of Santa Maria degli Angeli

Santa Maria degli Angeli, Florence

Santa Maria degli Angeli is the former church of a now-defunct monastery in Florence, Italy. It belonged to the Camaldolese order, which was a reformed branch of the Benedictines. The congregation was founded in 1012 by the hermit St. Romuald at Camaldoli, near Arezzo, hence the name...

 and now is in the museum of San Marco, Florence

San Marco, Florence

San Marco is the name of a religious complex in Florence, Italy. It comprises a church and a convent. The convent, which is now a museum, has three claims to fame: during the 15th century it was home to two famous Dominicans, the painter Fra Angelico and the preacher, Girolamo Savonarola...

. It is not to be confused with another Fra Angelico Last Judgement in the Gemäldegalerie, Berlin

Gemäldegalerie, Berlin

The Gemäldegalerie is an art museum in Berlin, Germany. It holds one of the world's leading collections of European art from the 13th to the 18th centuries. It is located on Kulturforum west of Potsdamer Platz. Its collection includes masterpieces from such artists as Albrecht Dürer, Lucas...

.

Description

Like most of Fra Angelico's work, the iconography

Iconography

Iconography is the branch of art history which studies the identification, description, and the interpretation of the content of images. The word iconography literally means "image writing", and comes from the Greek "image" and "to write". A secondary meaning is the painting of icons in the...

 is standard for the contemporary treatments of the Last Judgement. Among the most common subjects of painting in churches, it is found more often on walls. In the top centre of the picture, Christ sits in judgement on a white throne surrounded by angel

Angel

Angels are mythical beings often depicted as messengers of God in the Hebrew and Christian Bibles along with the Quran. The English word angel is derived from the Greek ἄγγελος, a translation of in the Hebrew Bible ; a similar term, ملائكة , is used in the Qur'an...

s, Mary, John, and the saints. Christ is shown as judge of the living and dead, his left hand pointing down to Hell, his right up to Heaven

Heaven (Christianity)

Traditionally, Christianity has taught Heaven as a place of eternal life and the dwelling place of Angels and the Throne of God, and a kingdom to which all the elect will be admitted...

. On Christ's right hand is paradise

Paradise

Paradise is a place in which existence is positive, harmonious and timeless. It is conceptually a counter-image of the miseries of human civilization, and in paradise there is only peace, prosperity, and happiness. Paradise is a place of contentment, but it is not necessarily a land of luxury and...

, with angels leading the saved

Salvation

Within religion salvation is the phenomenon of being saved from the undesirable condition of bondage or suffering experienced by the psyche or soul that has arisen as a result of unskillful or immoral actions generically referred to as sins. Salvation may also be called "deliverance" or...

 through a beautiful garden into a shining city. In the middle are the broken tombs of the risen dead, come out of their graves to be finally judged

Justification (theology)

Rising out of the Protestant Reformation, Justification is the chief article of faith describing God's act of declaring or making a sinner righteous through Christ's atoning sacrifice....

. On Christ's left demons drive the damned into Hell, where the wicked are tormented. At the very bottom Satan

Satan

Satan , "the opposer", is the title of various entities, both human and divine, who challenge the faith of humans in the Hebrew Bible...

 chews on three of the damned, and grasps two others.

See also

• Doom (painting)
  Doom (painting)
  A Doom is a traditional English term for a painting or other image of the Last Judgment, an event in Christian eschatology. Christ judges souls, and then sends them to either Heaven or Hell...
  
  
• The Last Judgment (Michelangelo)
  The Last Judgment (Michelangelo)
  The Last Judgment is a canonical fresco by the Italian Renaissance master Michelangelo executed on the altar wall of the Sistine Chapel in Vatican City...
  
  
• The Last Judgment (Bosch triptych)
  The Last Judgment (Bosch triptych)
  The Last Judgment is a triptych by Hieronymus Bosch, created after 1482.The triptych currently resides at the Academie für Bildenden Künste in Vienna. The outside of the shutters are Grisaille on panel, while the inside shutters and center are oil on panel. The left and right panels measure 167.7 x...
  
  
• The Last Judgment (Memling)
  The Last Judgment (Memling)
  The Last Judgment is a triptych attributed to German painter Hans Memling and painted between 1467 and 1471. It is now in the National Museum in Gdańsk in Poland. It was commissioned by Angelo Tani, an agent of the Medici at Bruges but was captured by a privateer from Danzig , Poland...
  
  
• The Last Judgment (van der Weyden)