Scenes from a Last Judgement
Last quarter of the XVI century. Wash, Grey-brown ink, Pencil, Pencil ground, Red chalk on yellow paper.Not on display
The composition of the Prado drawing requires some explanation because of the smallness of scale of the numerous figures in relation to the overall size of the paper. Above ground level, in the left-hand section of the design, saved souls awake from the dead. As they emerge from the earth, their skeletons grow flesh, and it is as perfectly formed humans, many with their heads and hands raised in wonderment, that they ascend the stairway in the clouds that leads them to Heaven, escorted by angels.
In the right-hand section, are the damned souls, with Satan, sporting bat-wings and wielding a spear, exercising crowd control. Together with his demons, Satan directs a procession of newly deceased into the gaping mouth of a monstrous head, which lies face upwards at the bottom right. In the top right, further demons set fire to a group of especially selected damned souls, while below ground other demons set about torturing the damned who have just entered from Hell´s mouth.
In spite of the cataclysmic subject matter, the mood of the composition is far from oppressive and is by no means as pessimistic as that of Michelangelo´s great Last Judgement in the Sistine Chapel. Indeed, there seems little differentiation in demeanor between the figures on the left and those on the right, as if all the participants were attending a rather lavish Halloween party. The drawing has been carefully squared in red chalk for the transfer of the design to another surface, possibly for the painting of a small-scale work on canvas or copper.
Turner, Nicholas, From Michelangelo to Annibale Carracci. A century of Italian drawings from the Prado, Chicago, Art Services International, 2008, p.176,220
