Byzantine And Western Depictions Of The Last Judgement:A Comparison Between Works.
The Last Judgement iconography tells the story of parousia, or Christ's second coming, in which Christ returns to earth to resurrect the dead and judge all of mankind, separating the saved who will ascend to paradise from the damned who are sent to Hell. The iconographical program of the Last Judgement developed into two different interpretations in the Middle Ages, the Byzantine Last Judgement and the western Last Judgement. The Byzantine Last Judgement artists developed an iconographical program by the middle of the 11th century that is often characterized by the inclusion of Etimasia, the empty throne, and the organization of the subject in horizontal fields within the work. Western artists in the Middle ages dwell upon the graphic sufferings of the damned and expound on the Apocryphal text that influenced their works. In Western Last Judgements a departure is made from the strict rectangular layout of horizontal fields, and more freedom is seen in the depiction and layout of the elements of the scene and a more fantastical and frightening image is presented through the expanded views of hell that the artists provide.
An icon from Sinai (fig. 1) serves as one of the earliest examples of the Byzantine Last Judgement. The icon is arranged in three distinct horizontal fields. Beginning with an analysis of the top field, Christ occupies the center of the field in front of the choir of the elect. He stretches his hands open and his feet down showing the nail wounds reminding the viewer of his crucifixion described in Matthew 27:32-44 , which was God's sacrifice for the sins of mankind, as it is written in the biblical text "and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross (Colossians 1:20)." The Virgin and Saint John the Baptist stand immediately to the right and left, respectively, of Christ. Moving further away from Christ we see six seated...
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