Last Judgement fresco, painted early 1300s and showing influence of Giotto. In the Chiesa di Santa Maria del Tiglio, a Como-Romanesque church built in the second half of the 1100s at Gravedona in Lombardy, Italy.
Chiesa di Santa Maria del Tiglio (St Mary of the Lime Tree), Gravedona, Province of Como, Lombardy, Italy: early 1300s Last Judgement fresco in a Como Romanesque church built in the second half of the 1100s, the Chiesa di Santa Maria del Tiglio (St Mary of the Lime Tree). This “Universal Judgement” or “Giudizio Universale” painting is the oldest fresco in the church. It is Lombardic in style and shows the influence of the Florentine painter known as Giotto (Giotto di Bondone, 1267-1337). It has been dated to the early 1300s and may well have been painted by a pupil or follower of Giotto during his lifetime. On the second lowest register of the fresco, are personifications of Christianity’s Seven Christian or Heavenly Virtues (left) and of Christianity’s Seven Vices or Deadly Sins (right). The figures all have manicules (hands with long index fingers), pointing to scrolls. Above the Seven Vices and Seven Virtues, the artist represented humanity in diverse skin colours and costumes when he depicted the Souls of the Departed awaiting Christ’s Judgement on their earthly lives. On the left, souls pray in hope that virtuous earthly lives will secure admission to Heaven as the Blessed, Chosen or Saved. On the right, figures wear expressions of apprehension. On the lowest register of the fresco, below the Seven Virtues, the fresco takes on a more local flavour, with Gravedona itself represented as a Celestial Jerusalem (lower left) - the original bell towers or campaniles of the Church of Santa Maria del Tiglio and of the Abbey of Piona, on the other side of Lake Como at Colico, are both recognisable. Below the Seven Vices, the naked souls of the Damned find themselves in Hell (lower right). On the top register of the fresco, Christ sits in Judgement and on the register below that, the dead rise from their coffins.
Size: 4088px × 2715px
Location: Chiesa di Santa Maria del Tiglio, Church of St Mary of the Lime Tree, Gravedona, Province of Como, L
Photo credit: © Terence Kerr / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
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