Manuscript Leaf with the Last Judgment, from a Book of Hours

Title: Manuscript Leaf with the Last Judgment, from a Book of Hours

Date: ca. 1400

Geography: Made in Paris, France

Culture: French

Medium: Tempera and gold on parchment

Dimensions: 3 3/4 x 2 1/2in. (9.5 x 6.3cm)
Mat: 8 5/8 × 7 1/8 in. (21.9 × 18.1 cm)

Classification: Manuscripts and Illuminations

Credit Line: Gift of Max Falk, in honor of William D. Wixom, 1998

Object Number: 1998.179

Flying above the hills in a sky with a tessellated ground of red, blue, and gold, two angles herald the Last Judgment. Christ, seated on a double rainbow, extends his hands toward the souls of the dead, who emerge from their earthly tombs and raise their hands to him in supplication. They represent people from all walks of life—men, women, a crowned king, and a pope. Imploring Christ on their behalf are the Virgin, at the left, one breast bared, and Saint John the Baptist (?), at the right.

This miniature from a Book of Hours, which illustrated a section of special prayers in French known as the "sept requêtes à nostre Seigneur" (seven requests to our Lord), typifies Parisian manuscript painting about 1400. Attributed by Christopher de Hamel to the Luçon Master, it bears comparison not only with miniatures by that artist and his workshop but also with other contemporary miniatures, as well as with works in other mediums. The pierced and polychromed ivory image of the same subject in the Museum's collection, for example, shares not only a common iconography but a fragile preciousness of execution characteristic of aristocratic taste of this time.

Daniel Burckhardt-Wildt, Basel; by descent, Burckhardt Family, Basel (sold 1983); Sotheby's, London(23 April 1983. lot 104b); [ Edward R. Lubin, Works of Art, New York (from 1983?)]; Max Falk, New York (until 1998)

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Mirror of the Medieval World," March 9–June 1, 1999.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "A New Look at a Van Eyck Masterpiece," January 25–April 24, 2016.

McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture, University of Tennessee. "Visions of the End in Early Christian Art," January 30, 2020–May 10, 2020.

"Departmental Accessions." Annual Report of the Trustees of the Metropolitan Museum of Art 128 (Jul. 1, 1997–Jun. 30, 1998). p. 17.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Recent Acquisitions: A Selection, 1998-1999." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 57, no. 2 (Fall 1999). p. 19.

Wixom, William D., ed. Mirror of the Medieval World. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1999. no. 206, pp. 169–70.