LAST Judgement II

In Last Judgement II we are offered God’s perspective of us. Sure, the depiction of the creator of the world as a stern judge, who’s prepared unimaginable torments for us after our death, is terrifying. But what about our own image? How would we look at the end of our earthly travels?

In this painting, all the creatures of hell have vanished. Seemingly, they only ever existed within the human mind and its folklore. All that remains is a calm presence before transcendence.

A row of characters stands lined up awaiting their final judgment. On the left side of the canvas, we see the heroine from the first painting, now facing us. Her features are soft; her hands are empty. She is surrounded by distorted souls, whose earthly journey has forever altered their posthumous image. Intoxicated by their thirst for power, immorality, and violence, their features have reduced in abstract ways.

The bloodied male figure carries himself with such a heavy burden that we cannot discern his face. He holds the body of a child in his palm. Is this the figure of a child-killer? Or maybe a father driven mad by vengeance?

On the right, a frightened child peers out from behind the distorted figures. Like our female protagonist, his features are unchanged. He is a pure soul, having parted with life before something irreparably distorts his spiritual image.

Above them are the words from Saint Anselm, as Chaucer quotes them in the last section of the Canterbury Tales. (Painted in Middle English, as it was written in the original.) The letters flutter from the scroll on God’s lap in Last Judgement I; and levitate above the characters’ heads. Not as a curse, but as a prophecy about to unfold!