Quattuor Novissima - The Four Last Things
Death – Judgement – Heaven – Hell are the “Four Last Things” (Quattuor Novissima) in Christian eschatology, meaning the things that come at or after the ending of a person's life on earth. In medieval times everyday life was dominated by the fear of what is to come after death – visionaries who traveled to the afterlife provided the faithful with stories of how the sinners are punished in the purgatory and in hell and filled the hearts of the faithful with fear as well as those of the artists with inspiration. The latter used these reports to bring those visions to the visual world by immortalizing them on paper and wood. This illustration follows the tradition of the old masters depicting how christian eschatology imagined the “Quattuor Novissima”.
The round shape of the center piece that is parted in four segments symbolizes the earth and thus the cosmological relevance of this subject while the Four “Anemoi” in the corners are referring to the four seasons and their eternal recurrence and thus the concept of “time” in contrast to the concept of “space” denoted by the spherical form of the center piece. In the four segments of the circle are depictions of each of the Four Last Things:
The bottom segment shows “Death” in the shape of a particular judgement. The woman lying on a bed is shown at the exact moment her soul is leaving the body. In the art of the Middle Ages and especially in the “ars moriendi” books this event was often depicted showing a small, naked version of the deceased leaving the body through the mouth. This small figure, that is called “animulus” (little soul), is surrounded by many demons and an angel. Both sides fight to get the soul of the deceased and bring it to either heaven or hell and thus perform the particular judgement, since which side gets the soul is determined by the acts of the deceased during his or her life on earth.
In contrast to the particular judgement that is held directly after the death of a human being, the upper segment shows the general judgement or better known as “Last Judgement” that takes place at the end of the world. This “Last Thing” is symbolized by the Deesis which consists of Jesus as the Judge flanked by the Virgin Mary and Saint John the Baptist. While Jesus is deciding over the fate of the souls, Mary and John are speaking on behalf of the souls that are being judged. Following the tradition of the great late-medieval masters, Jesus is shown sitting on a rainbow while a sword and a lily point towards his head – symbols for his wrath towards the damned and the love he feels towards the blessed.
The segments to the left and the right show the places in the beyond that the souls are divided and send to during the Last Judgement – Heaven and Hell. Even though there are additional places in the beyond, as the Paradise or the Purgatorio, there are only two places left after the Last Judgement has been performed and the world as we know it comes to an end.
Heaven is showed in the left segment (on the right hand side of Jesus). The building illustrated is the gate to heaven that is drawn in the style of a gothic cathedral. Cathedrals in the middle ages were thought to be worldly reflections of the “New Jerusalem” - the actual name of the place in Heaven the souls of the blessed live in after the end of the world. In front of the gate stands Saint Paulus who helds the key to the heavens and welcomes the blessed.
The right segment (on the left hand side of Jesus) shows Hell, where demons are torturing the damned, who lived a life full of sins. The damned are put into a huge cauldron where they are doomed to burn in the eternal fires of the Inferno while abominable creatures consisting of body parts of several different animals paired with an anthropomorphic appearance mock them.
ca. 30 x 30 cm. Printed on Hahnemühle textured FineArt archival paper (210 gsm). Hand signed.
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