Last Judgement (c. 1431)

The Last Judgement was painted for the church of Santa Maria degli Angeli in Florence. It was first described in the church on the right side of the choir, where the priest sat while Mass was being sung.

An extraordinarily rich theological, literary and artistic tradition informed Angelico's conception of the Last Judgement. His imagery emerged from biblical sources that included the Old Testament prophets, who so vividly foretold the apocalyptic coming of the 'son of man' in the heavens, as well as Saint Matthew, who described the separation of the Blessed and the Damned sent into eternal life or infernal punishment. Dante Alighieri's intensely visual imagery of Paradise and Hell in the Divine Comedy was also a source for Angelico.