The Last Judgement

What it is

This is a carved and painted wooden relief of the Last Judgement, made around 1520 in Biberach in Swabia by the workshop of the Master of the Biberach Holy Kinship. Christ, with a bare chest and a crown of thorns, stands at the centre, and the Virgin and angels appear in clouds above. Kneeling people on both sides, with a mother and child, a crippled beggar and a wealthy townsman, are shown already affected by the disease. The record says a man and a woman kneeling beside them are probably the donors. Heaven is shown on one side and Hell, and perhaps Purgatory, on the other.

Why it matters

This relief was made roughly 150 years after the Black Death. It shows how a later religious community understood the plague: as a judgement that people could pray about, with Christ and Mary asking God to show mercy. It also reveals who paid for art like this, through the donors shown at its base.

Look closer

• Who is shown at the base of the relief, and what are they doing?
• Why might the donors have wanted their own figures in the scene?
• What does the relief leave out about the way doctors or towns responded to the disease?