The Last Judgement is a triptych of oil paintings by the British artist John Martin, created in 1851–1853. The work comprises three separate paintings on a theme of the end of the world, inspired by the Book of Revelation. The paintings, The Plains of Heaven, The Last Judgement, and The Great Day of His Wrath, are generally considered to be among Martin's most important works, and have been described by some art critics as his masterpiece. The paintings were Martin's last major works before his death in 1854. They were exhibited to the public from the time of his death until the 1870s to advertise the sale of prints from engravings of the works, being displayed in galleries and exhibition halls all over Britain, in New York in 1856–57 and in Australia in 1878–79. It has been claimed that up to eight million people viewed the paintings during their extensive tours. Martin's style of didactic expository art was rarely praised by art critics but remained popular with the public until the 1860s. He fell out of style by the end of the 19th century, and his works were pigeonholed as Victorian and religious by the early 20th century. Critical opinion of Martin's work improved from the 1940s, and the Tate Gallery bought The Great Day of His Wrath in 1945. The triptych was reassembled at the Tate Gallery in 1974 after Charlotte Frank donated the two other works following the death of her husband, Robert Frank. The paintings were the cornerstone of the first substantial exhibition of Martin's works at the Tate Britain in 2011–12, with a theatrical son et lumière show dramatising the manner of their exhibition in Victorian Britain.
The Last Judgement The first element of the triptych, The Last Judgement, is the central piece, intended to be displayed between the peaceful landscape of The Plains of Heaven to the left and the turbulent scene in The Great Day of His Wrath to the right. It combines elements of both, with a crowd of "saved" people to the left, and of the "damned" to the right, with the heavenly host above. A drawing in pencil and ink, signed and dated 1845, shows that this work was planned before Martin decided to paint a triptych, and Martin had started work on the painting by the end of 1849. Painted in oil on canvas, it measures 196.8 centimetres (77.5 in) by 325.7 centimetres (128.2 in). The work reflects the text of the Book of Revelation, which states that the Book of Judgement is sealed with seven seals, and describes the events that take place as each seal is broken. The breaking of the sixth seal triggers "the great day of his wrath" depicted in the second painting, followed by the last judgement after the seventh seal is broken. According to chapter 4 of the Book of Revelation, "a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne ... and round about the throne were four and twenty seats: and upon the seats I saw four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in white raiment: and they had on their heads crowns of gold"; in chapter 8, "four of the seven angels who have sounded their trumpets after the opening of the seventh seal", and "an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, Woe ... to the inhabitors of the earth."; in chapter 9, a star falls from heaven and creates a bottomless pit: "and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace". The armies of Gog and Magog, "the number of whom is as the sand of the sea" are mentioned in chapter 20, and paradise is referred to in chapter 21: "I saw a new heaven and a new earth ... the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband". In the background of the painting is the Celestial City, Jerusalem, drawing elements from Martin's earlier historical and architectural paintings, with the Plains of Heaven behind. The light of God pervades the work, with Christ sitting in judgement on the Throne of God in the centre, accompanied by 24 seated elders. Four angels sound trumpets after the opening of the seventh seal. Below, a yawning chasm divides mankind into two parts: the "saved" are assembled on Mount Zion at God's right hand (that is, on the viewer's left) and the damned are gathered on the right. The virtuous men, women and children of the saved include portraits of around 40 famous people–many of which are painted on slips of paper that were pasted onto the canvas like a collage–awaiting their turn to appear before the throne. An engraved key was published in 1855 identifying the principal figures among the saved which include many artists, writers and scientists such as Thomas More, John Wesley, Cnut the Great, Jean-Baptiste Colbert, George Washington, Geoffrey Chaucer, Torquato Tasso, Pierre Corneille, William Shakespeare, Nicolaus Copernicus, Isaac Newton, and James Watt. The damned include richly dressed women, notably Salome, daughter of Herodias, and the Whore of Babylon, alongside lawyers and clergymen including a bishop and a pope. A railway train with carriages labelled "London" and "Paris" tumbles into the bottomless pit. The forces of Satan are being defeated, with the armies of Gog and Magog also falling into the abyss. The painting shows the time when "Heaven and Earth are passing away, and all things are made new." According to Mary L. Pendered's 1923 book John Martin, Painter: His Life and Times, Martin originally intended to call the painting All Things Made New. The painting was retained by Martin's family after his death until it was sold in 1935. It was acquired by Robert Frank in 1947, inherited by his wife Charlotte Frank in 1953, and left to the Tate Gallery in memory of her husband in 1974.
The Great Day of His Wrath
The second work in the triptych, The Great Day of His Wrath, was intended to be hung to the right of The Last Judgement, and continues the theme of destruction and damnation depicted on the right side of the central image. The Book of Revelation describes a scene that is painted by Martin: "... and, lo, there was a great earthquake and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair and the moon became as blood. And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together and every mountain and island were moved out of their places." The collapsing pile of rocks to the right of the painting are the buildings of an entire city falling into an abyss. The oil on canvas work measures 196.5 centimetres (77.4 in) by 303.2 centimetres (119.4 in). It was bought by the Tate Gallery in 1945.
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