Last Judgment 

Basic Info

Matthew 25:31–46, Revelation 20:11–15

In Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus taught the disciples about the Final Judgment that will occur at the end of time. John’s Revelation offers another vision of that event. Artists tend to combine the two. In Revelation, the vision is one of the dead (both the lowly and the great) standing in line before the One sitting on the great white throne. In Matthew, Jesus likewise talks of the Son of Man sitting in glory on a throne, in this case surrounded by angels. The nations are lined up before the Son of Man, with the sheep on his right side and the goats on his left. In this context, the sheep are those people who clothed the naked, fed the hungry, gave drink to the thirsty, welcomed the stranger, and visited the ill and imprisoned. The goats are those who did not. The sheep were characteristically unaware that when they turned toward someone in need with a helping hand, they were turning toward God. Likewise, the goats were unaware that when they turned away from those in need, they were turning away from God. The sheep get eternal life, the goats, eternal punishment.

The Last Judgment is common in both the icon tradition and the more loosely structured art tradition that started in Western Europe and has spread. The iconography is remarkably similar in both contexts, to a point. Both depict Jesus in the center on a throne as the judge, often surrounded by a mandorla (icon tradition) or a full-body glow or halo. People are rising upward on Jesus’ right and moving downward on Jesus’ left. Sometimes angels or saints are shown offering a hand up to those on the right. Demons are often shown pulling down those on the left. Occasionally, the people at the Judgment are depicted in groups (as nations) rather than as individuals, but more often the people seem to be present as individuals. The individuals on Jesus’ right are usually identifiable as particular saints. On rare occasion, an artist depicts a particular person among the individuals heading downward to eternal punishment.

The scene is often presented in layers with hell at the very bottom, a depiction of earth above that, and Heaven (with angels, saints, clouds, and other heavenly bodies) in the upper register.

Historical Notes

In Orthodox churches even today, there is usually a Final Judgment icon over the western door. A carved relief image of the Final Judgment was likewise common in the tympanum over the western door in medieval churches in Western Europe.

What to Look For

•    The expressions, gestures, and posture of the judging Jesus Christ (compassionate, merciful, stern, scary, etc.)

•    Whether those being judged are depicted as individuals or as nations

•    The expressions, gestures, and postures of those on the right

•    The expressions, gestures, and postures of those on the left

•    The physical depictions of Heaven and hell

•    Mary’s place in relation to Jesus

•    Whether there are layers even within Heaven

•    Whether you can identify any particular saints by the attributes the artist has given them

Questions to Focus a General Interpretation

Does the artwork do a good job of inspiring repentance for all those times the viewer turned away from Jesus Christ?

Does the artwork do a good job of inspiring viewers to turn toward God by turning toward the neighbor in need?

Does the artwork convey the goodness of the saints depicted (or the evil of the sinners depicted), or does it presume the viewer already knows about how each of these people turned their lives toward God?

Questions to Guide a Personal Interpretation

Are there elements of the artwork that call to mind some of the ways you are able to turn toward God? Are there elements of the artwork that call to mind some of the ways you have turned away from God in the past? Does the artwork offer support in choosing one path or the other?

What about the artwork attracts you? What repels you? What might that say about what is going on in your life right now?

Questions to Suggest a Historical Interpretation



In every age, there are sinners. They show up in the worlds of politics, economics, society, and the Church. Christianity teaches that to be human is to be sinful but that saints model for everyone else how to choose God’s will in the face of the temptation to sin. What does this artwork suggest might have been the biggest sins of the artist’s time and place?