Hospitals are usually places where people are offered medical care. At their best they may also offer psychological and spiritual care for patients and support for families. Most of the information supplied by hospitals today has to do with visiting hours, procedures for complainst and information on how to use the TV. But in the 15th century one hospital offered, in addition to care for the bodies of its patients, a powerful warning about their eternal fate. The most important information it provided was a theological statement about the need for repentance to avoid the horror of being damned. There was no need for translation into different langauges (or to assume any standard of literacy) because this warning came in the form of a magnificent painting. Above the altar in the chapel of the Hospices de Beaune, within sight of all the patients, hung a magnificent painting by the flemish paínter Rogier van der Weyden, depicting the Last Judgement. The message of the painting was clear. Those who believed in Christ would, at the Resurrection, enter into a joyful life as fully individualised human persons in the eternal city of God, while those who rejected Christ, would find themselves lost in an undifferentiated chaos of broken humanity in an eternity of separation from God. The painting is not just visually striking but psychologically and spiritually profound. Anticipating the insights of modern depth psychology and existential philosophy Van der Weyden depicts the misery of the lost as the fundamental loss of human identity. While those who walk joyfully towards their eternal home with God become more fully human as they approach the gates of the city of God, those who are cast away to the darkness at the edge of the picture become less than human, lost amid a chaotic jumble of limbs and anguished faces. There is no devil and there are no monsters here. The tormentors are the monsters who live within us. Those declared righteous are judged suitable for heavenly bliss and head towards the new Jerusalem, the city of God to the left of the painting (Christ's right). Initially as they come out of their graves and begin to head toward the heavenly city they gaze up at Christ and in attitudes of faith, wonder and gratitude. As they make their way from their graves towards the heavenly city their gaze turns from Christ to the city itself. As they rise and move away from their graves they become more individual and "human". The damned on the other hand, emerge from their graves and as they move towards hell they become hunched, bowed and less human in form. Their individuality begins to disappear. They become part of a mass of undifferentiated humanity. In hell, the damned become a chaotic mass of limbs and body parts.
In a previous post The Book of Hours of Catherine of Cleves I suggested that the art of the 15th century can give us some good idea of what people thought about the afterlife, heaven, hell and in the case of the book of Hours, purgatory. These themes are also evident in a series of paintings from the same period by different artists which depict the Last Judgement. Most of these paintings follow a fixed formula but each artist crafted that basic raw material in different ways to put their own mark on the Last Judgment theme. Rogier van der WeydenRogier van der Weyden (1399-1464) was a Flemish painter who produced some of the most beautiful and striking paintings of the early 15th century. Although he worked in Brussels his paintings were in demand across the continent and some of his most famous paintings such as the Descent from the Cross and the Miraflores Altarpiece, found their way to Spain. According to one contemporary writer, his paintings "Adorned the courts of all the kings". Like his contemporary Jan van Eyck († 1441), Van der Weyden must have discovered as a young man that although he was capable of producing lifelike renderings of the natural world, he could do more than simply imitate immediate reality. So sensitive was his treatment of forms and lines that his compositions, based on geometric harmonies, were immediately striking and became engraved on the memory. He also knew how to handle colour and abstract forms in order to intensify the spectator’s emotional reaction. He could represent anything highly realistically, but when it suited him he ignored the logic of space and scale or blurred the boundaries between reality and sculpture. His works are so beautiful, ambiguous and fascinating that they compel us to return to them time and time again, and we always discover something new. Online catalogue for current exhibition at the Museo Nacional Del Prado The Last Judgment was commissioned in 1443 for the Hospices de Beaune by Nicolas Rolin the chancellor of the Duchy of Burgundy. The Hospices de Beaune was a hospital established by Rolin and his wife Guigone de Salins, to help provide for the needs of the injured and sick of Beaune. As the French version of the name implies, a "hospital" was not a place someone then went expecting to get better. It was really a place where care was offered to the dying. In the founding charter of the hospital Rolin wrote "disregarding all human concerns and in the interest of my salvation, desiring by a favourable trade to exchange for celestial goods temporal ones, that I might from divine goodness render those goods which are perishable for ones which are eternal ... in gratitude for the goods which the Lord, source of all wealth, has heaped upon me, from now on and for always, I found a hospital." The Last Judgment was commissioned as an altarpeice. It would stand behind and above the high altar in the chapel. It was painted in van der Weyden's workshop in Brussels and it was ready and in place by 1451. The reason for commissioning this painting for the hospital was to remind the patients of their "final destination", the intention being to persuade them to make their peace with God before it was too late. The painting was to be within view of the patients (through a pierced screen) at all times. Rolin stipulated that at least 30 beds were to be set in a position where those in the beds (60 people - there were two patients to a bed) could see it. This was clearly intended to be a powerful warning to the hospital's patients of what would happen to them at "the end". Rolin and his wife may well have been moved by genuine charitable pity for the sick and poor of Beaune but I am sure that they would also have been motivated by their own need to reduce the time in the next life sent in the purgatorial flames. I noted in the last post The Book of Hours of Catherine of Cleves that most people would expect to go to purgatory when they died where the fires would purge them of their sins before they were ready to go to paradise/heaven. Helping others to find their place in God's final salvation at the Last Judgment would I am sure, help Rolin along on his path to paradise! The PaintingThe Last Judgment is a series of 15 separate paintings on 9 panels, 6 of which are painted on both sides, which means that it could be opened and closed giving different views. When it was "closed" observers saw this. The outer panels are magnificent themselves with the saints, angel and Mary painted as if they were statues. It features portraits of Rolin and his wife in prayer, with the two saints Sebastian and Anthony in the centre. Sebastian was the saint of plagues and Anthony was the patron saint of skin diseases and ergotism, known in medieval times as St Anthony's Fire. Above them viewers could see the Annunciation, the announcement by the angel Gabriel to Mary of the coming birth of her child, Jesus. Viewing these outer panels in this position, the sick in the hospital would have found great comfort, in the thoughts of the kind and saintly donors who had provided the hospital, in the intercession of the two saints and in the hope of salvation through Christ and the story of how that great gift was given by the angels to a young girl. But however beautifully rendered these outer panels are, the scene is drab and colourless. On the inside however when the panels were opened up the viewer is presented with a magnificent vista of colour and drama. In the centre and towards the top of the central panel is Christ, dressed in a regal, red robe but still the crucified and risen saviour - the robe is open in the middle to reveal the injury caused by the spear and his hands reveal the marks of the nails. He holds a lily in his right hand and a sword in his left, and sits on a rainbow extending across two panels, while his feet rest on a sphere. His right hand is raised in the act of blessing, his left hand lowered. These positions indicate the act of judgement; he is deciding if souls are to be sent to heaven or hell, the position of his hands echoing the direction and positioning of the scales held by the Archangel Michael beneath him. To the right and left of Christ, with the best seats in the house, are Mary, John the Baptist, the apostles and seven contemporary dignitaries (various religious types!) They are onlookers onto the judgement scene and belong to the upper, heavenly register of the painting but their bodies and clothes blend into the lower "earthly" register. The painting is quite remarkable in this fluidity between the upper and lower sections. This was something completely new in paintings of this kind and the implication is that the two dimensions of heaven and earth are connected, and that what goes in one has profound effects on the other. Christ is flanked by two sets of angels who carry the symbols of his passion. Those on his right carry the cross and the crown of thorns. Those on his left bear the spear that pierced his side and the cloth soaked in vinegar. Michael, weighing up the deadTruly spanning both levels, is the archangel Michael, who does the "weighing up" of the dead. He holds a pair of scales in which the dead are, literally, weighed. I am not sure how the weighing was meant to work, but it appears that people are weighed against each other (great, if the other person is really bad but not if the other person is a saint). I suspect the viewer is not meant to analyse the "how" of the weighing too much; it is a metaphor and the important thing to know is that, like king Belshazzar, we will be "weighed in the balance" (Daniel 5.24-27). Michael is the most interesting character in the painting. He is beautifully dressed and his wings are resplendent. He appears to be stepping forward as if prepared to come out of the painting and his eyes stare straight forward fixing the viewer with his stare. I am reminded of the famous World War One recruiting poster with a picture of Lord Kitchener pointing out of the poster at the viewer and declaring "your country needs you". Here, Michael's posture and stare says "this could be you!" More or less humanThe real interest of the painting and the focal point in terms of this blog however is his depiction of the dead in the bottom area of the painting. This is clearly a painting of the eschatalogical Last Judgment. The dead are rising from their graves in the centre of the painting. This is not a depiction of what happens to people after death, but of the final Resurrection of the Dead and the Last Judgment, as promised in the bible. These are not "souls" being weighed and judged but embodied people. Those declared righteous are judged suitable for heavenly bliss and head towards the New Jerusalem, the City of God to the left of the painting (Christ's right). Initially as they come out of their graves and begin to head toward the heavenly city they gaze up at Christ in attitudes of faith, wonder and gratitude. As they make their way further from their graves something striking happens to them; they become more individual and "human". They rise from crouched postures of supplication to fully upright positions. Each person becomes more individual, distingished from the earth which had so recently bound them and from each other. The journey away from the grave and towards the heavenly city is a journey into humanity. The damned on the other hand, emerge from their graves and as they move towards hell they become hunched, bowed and less human in form. Their individuality begins to disappear. They become part of a mass of undifferentiated humanity. In the end, in hell, the damned become a chaotic mass of limbs and body parts. This is a profound theological statement by Van der Weyden. Salvation makes us more human, and emphasises our individual human identity. Damnation is connected with losing our essential human dignity. The horror expressed in the painting is not any particular torment of the body but the loss of humanity. This is what makes the painting truly terrifying. The wasteland of the damnedThese pictures of damnation are fascinating and terrifying. What is truly brilliant is that van der Weyden captures the emotional personal horror of being condemned to an eternity without God. These are representative figures but they are also real people, people like us. We can identify with them and their situation. Their faces reveal the inner turmoil. There is no infernal city in this painting but rather the damned can expect to live out their miserable existence in the wasted gloomy landscape depicted at the right of the painting. It reminds me of a sort of post apocalyptic wasteland . . . . which is I guess what it is! The painting was produced in the shadow of the Hundred Years war and I am sure many of those who first saw it would have been familiar with the terrible, destructive power of war, of massacres and their villages and towns being razed to the ground. How much of this hellscape was inspired by those memories and images, I wonder? What is of great interest to me is how the hellscape is part of the lower register of the painting, in other words hell is not beneath the earth or in some kind of "spiritual dimension" but rather, it lies on the edge of human experience. It lies in the future but it isn't actually very far away. It is part of this reality. This hell is actually a version of this world. In the medieval times heaven and hell were very real places, very much part of the fabric of this-worldly reality. Another remarkable feature of hell is that there are no demons. This was first noted in a scholarly publication by Erwin Panofsky in his 1953 book Early Netherlandish Painting: Its Origin and Character. He saw that the lack of demons emphasised the role the damned themselves have in their own hellish torment. Rather than punishment being administered from outside, their true torment is the inner realisation of their culpability before God. The anguish on the faces is not the anguish of physical pain but of self-inflicted, irretrievable loss. There is no "hell" worse. There is an utter limitation of narrative elements: devils are nowhere in evidence, and the heavenly Jerusalem is limited to a golden gate. The emphasis is not on outward display, but on the emotional state of the resurrected, the damned grimacing in horror. As Panofsky put it: The city of GodSalvation on the other hand, means finding yourself in the heavenly city. The damned are lost to civilisation, inhabiting the blighted wastelands of hell. The blessed find their humanity enhanced in civilisation, exemplified by a city, the city of God, which shines in golden splendour. "Heaven" is also something solid and real, again found on the lower register of the painting. The home of the blessed is not up in the heavens with God but here in this new creation, this earth as it might be if the world were a city built by God. Here there is order, peace and security and beauty. But the city is also a great Gothic church. The entrance to heaven is only through the church. There was no concept in this world of individual salvation and no choices about how people found their way to heavenly bliss. The idea of different ways of being the church was to wait for another 70 years, until the Reformation, and even then it was an argument over which was the correct form for the Church. The blessed are welcomed and guided by an angel. They enter in small groups. Individuality is accentuated. Humanity is affirmed. (Hopefully clothes are distributed!) Online resourcesIf you want to know more about Rogier van der Weyden this is a really helpful video introduction by "top" expert on Van der Weyden, Lorne Campbell. He is talking about the exhibition at the Prado museum which he has curated. Just 8 minutes. This a great video discussion of the Altarpiece. Only 8 minutes long and a very clear and helpful discussion which covers everything I have said above and more! You might also enjoy . . . .
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Archives
April 2016
GalleryThis blog is as much about images as it is about text. Below is a slideshow of the pictures and images used in this blog. Click on any of the pictures to go to the post where that image is featured.
PostsLocating Paradise #1 In a Garden, Far, Far Away
The Testament of Abraham and the Threefold Judgement of God #5 'Stuck in the Middle With You'
The Resurrection According to Rahner
Today You Will Be With Me in Paradise
The Testament of Abraham and the Threefold Judgement of God #4 'And Who by Fire'
The Testament of Abraham and the Threefold Judgement of God #3: Held in the Balance
The Testament of Abraham and the Threefold Judgement of God #2: Once, Twice, Three Times a Sinner
The Testament of Abraham and the Threefold Judgement of God #1: The Broad and Narrow Gates
Daily Dante 7: Many Rivers to Cross
Daily Dante 6: 'You Gotta Serve Somebody'
In Hell Everyone Can Hear You Scream. The Vision of Tundale #3
Teeth, Spikes and Cleavers: At the Sharp end of Hell. The Vision of Tundale #2
'No Pain No Gain': The Vision of Tundale #1
'Hellzapoppin':
Illustrations from Le Livre de la Vigne nostre Seigneur, #2 'It's The End of the World as We Know It (and we feel fine)'. Illustrations from Le Livre de la Vigne nostre Seigneur, #1
Visions of Heaven. Botticini's Assumption of the Virgin #2 Blinded by the Light
Visions of Heaven. Botticini's Assumption of the Virgin #1: Glorious and Immortal
Daily Dante 5: What the gates said.
Daily Dante 4: When I find myself in times of trouble
Daily Dante 3: I'll take you there
Daily Dante 2: Fierce creatures
Daily Dante 1: If you go down to the woods today
In Seventh Heaven or 'What Enoch Did Next'
A World of Fire and Ice: Heaven according to Enoch
The Power and the Glory: Visions of God as king in the Hebrew bible
The Beautiful Bestiary of Catherine Cleves: Monsters and Demons in detail.
Heaven is for Real: Heaven as a physical space up above the sky
Resurrecting the Dead or Reviving the Flowers? The loss of resurrection faith in Judaism.
The Defeat of Death #1: The promise of resurrection in the Isaiah Apocalypse.
The Defeat of Death #2: Death as a hostile power and promise of God's victory in Isaiah
Scary Monsters and Super Creeps: The 'Last Judgement' according to Stefan Lochner
Hell in the Hospital: The 'Last Judgement' of Rogier van der Weyden in the Beaune altarpiece.
'Hell' in the New Testament #2: The gates of Hades shall not prevail
The Hours of Catherine Cleves: Imagining hell and purgatory in Catherine's prayer book
'On Earth as in Heaven': The kingdom of God as a revelation of heaven
'Hell' in the New Testament #1: Gehenna
Lost in Translation #1: How the King James version got it so wrong about hell
Heaven is not our home
Domes, Depths and Demons: The cosmology of the Hebrew world
A Bigger God
"See you in Sheol" - Sheol, the common destination of all
Heaven, Hell and Christian Hope
BooksBelow are some of the books which have helped me the most in the research and writing for this blog. Click on any image to find out more about that book at its page on Amazon uk.
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