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Europe 1300 - 1800
Course: Europe 1300 - 1800 > Unit 5
Lesson 8: Van der WeydenRogier van der Weyden, Last Judgment
Rogier van der Weyden, Last Judgment, 1443-51, oil on panel, 215 x 560 cm (Musée de l'Hôtel Dieu, Beaune). Speakers: Dr. Beth Harris and Dr. Steven Zucker Visit Smarthistory.org for more art history videos.
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- This could be my imagination, but one of the female figures on the "damned" side seems to have more of a belly than the female figure on the "blessed" side. She couldn't be pregnant perhaps, could she? Could an unborn child be considered one of the "damned"? I would hope not!(3 votes)
- Jeff, it just may have been the artist's prejudice against pulchritude and for slimness, one of those things we see in the fashion world even today. Dave(3 votes)
- What is written on the right from Christ, on the "damned" side?(2 votes)
- What is the motivation behind an artist of the northern renaissance to paint the annunciation in stone sculptures?(1 vote)
- There are other altarpieces that have stone sculptures very similar to this - the Ghent Altarpiece is one. It's interesting, because at the time, sculpture was usually painted, not left plain stone. However, artists like Rogier van der Weyden and Jan van Eyck painted actual stone sculptures as part of their repertoire, as well as painting panels. Perhaps they liked the plain stone (like we have come to prefer in modern times) and started a trend of representing them this way. The painted stone sculptures always seem to be saints that the donors are praying to.(2 votes)
- It is interesting to notice the ratio of men and women on the blessed and damned sides of the painting. On the blessed side 3 out of 11 are women which is around 37% and on the damned side 7 out of 17 are women which is closer to 40%.
So there are more men than women going into both heaven and hell but the percentage of women going to hell is higher what does this mean?(1 vote)- It means that (1.) your math might be wrong - (2.) you made a typo in the 1st calculation, closer to only 27% - or (3.) The artist highly favored men & took artistic license. Back in those days, equality of the sexes was not in fashion. Male artists were in the great majority, only a few female artists of that time are known today.(2 votes)
Video transcript
(light piano music) - [Voiceover] We're in the town of Beaune, in the Hotel-Dieu, in a very dark room, where they've moved the altarpiece, by Rogier van der Weyden,
of the Last Judgment. Now, this originally stood
in the hospital room, where the sick would be cared for, and they could look through
a screen during Mass, and see this altarpiece, a
really appropriate subject for those who were ill, and who were, many of them, near death. - [Voiceover] Right, one
went to the hospital to die. - [Voiceover] At least, in
the 15th century, you did. Now, this was a hospital, commissioned by the Chancellor, for
the Duke of Burgundy. - [Voiceover] This was a
very powerful position. He was, in a sense, a
lawyer, and it's appropriate, then, the subject of this
panel, not on the outside, but when we open it up,
and we are confronted with this magnificent interior. - [Voiceover] And Rolin
commissioned this entire building, and this polyptic by
Rogier van der Weyden, in the hope that it would gain him his own salvation. Right now we're looking at
the back of the altarpiece, or what you would have seen
when the altar was closed. - [Voiceover] It's interesting,
'cause the outside, the exterior, is really the worldly. It is our world. The exterior shows six panels. At the top, we have the Annunciation. We see the Archangel Gabriel, on the left. We see the Virgin Mary,
interrupted in her prayer, on the right. - [Voiceover] The moment
when God is made flesh, when salvation becomes
possible, for mankind, and below that, two
grisaille, or painted in grey, images of saints, on the
left, Saint Sebastian, and on the right, Saint Anthony. Both associated with healing and illness. - [Voiceover] And then
on the outer panels, we actually see the patrons. We see Rolin on the left,
and his wife on the right. In both cases, there are
angels in back of them, that hold their respective coats of arms. - [Voiceover] And the figures
are painted with exactitude, that we always see in
the Northern Renaissance. We get the sense that this is exactly what Nicolas Rolin looked like. - [Voiceover] When the panels are opened, we have a painting that is 18 feet wide, and we have at the top, Christ in majesty, Christ as judge. - [Voiceover] Seated on a
rainbow, and what's so wonderful is that he's actually seated on it. His knees are foreshortened
and come towards us. - [Voiceover] He seems
to balance, although, his feet are on a beautifully
rendered golden orb, which is bejeweled. - [Voiceover] A symbol of power. - [Voiceover] Now, below Christ,
who is the ultimate judge of heaven, and remember,
that Rolin is a kind of lawyer, and so this notion of justice is very much a part of his life. And we see another rendering
of justice, just below Christ. We see the Archangel Michael,
who's beautifully rendered in white, with wings
that seem to be the wings of peacocks, and we see him holding this magnificent scale. In the bowls of that scale,
we see naked figures. Those are meant to
represent souls, and we see that the soul on our right is heavier. He's weighed down by sin. And so this man is going to Hell. And on our left, we see
Michael holding a figure who is blessed, who is going to Heaven, who's lighter, and so
that extends to the left and the right. On the left, those who are
rising up toward Heaven, and on the right, the
damned, who move toward the right corner, toward
the fires of Hell. - [Voiceover] It's
interesting, there's nothing that's compelling those
figures to go to Hell, but they seem to, in
their terror, run towards that fiery abyss. - [Voiceover] Although,
some of them do seem to be being pulled by their hair
into the fires of Hell. - [Voiceover] They're
screaming as they go. Whereas on the left,
we see a representation of the gate of Heaven,
and we see an angel, perhaps Michael again,
who's escorting the blessed into the Kingdom of God. - [Voiceover] What we really
notice is the frontality of Michael and of Christ, that sense that there is no bargaining, here. This is justice, it's being meted out, there's no wavering, no
discussion, one is either on Christ's right, as the
blessed, or on Christ's left, as the damned. - [Voiceover] There are
more damned than blessed. It's interesting, this
Northern style of precision, of exactitude, in the
rendering of the physical, that is so much a part of the
work of Rogier van der Weyden, plays into that idea of the absoluteness. Everything is verifed
through its visual accuracy. - [Voiceover] That's made
even more clear by that heavenly gold background. - [Voiceover] Well, it's
interesting, because so often in early painting, we
see a gold background. We see the light of heaven. But it tends to be a flat background. But here, it's clouds, with
volume, and it almost seems like the fiery colors of a
sunset, that the clouds of the sky, and so we have
this heavenly light, yes, but it's also in some ways, more of the natural world, as well. On either side of Michael,
we see four smaller angels in this beautiful purplish-red,
and they're blowing their golden trumpets,
announcing the end of time, but also waking the dead. - [Voiceover] On either side
of Christ, are also symbols of what's happening here. On our left, Christ's
right, with the blessed, the lilies, a sense of
mercy, and then on our right, or Christ's left, the sword of justice. - [Voiceover] Christ is
neither looking left nor right. He looks directly out at us, judging us. - [Voiceover] On the other
hand, he also makes a gesture of blessing, he looks out at us, but there's also something reassuring. - [Voiceover] Only if you're
looking to his right hand, but if you look to his
left, he seems to also be condemning the damned into hell. - [Voiceover] And we can
clearly see Christ's wounds on his feet, his own
suffering, for the sins of mankind. (light jazzy piano music)