painting

Last Judgement and the Seven Acts of Mercy

Bernard van Orley

About this work

Object details

TitleLast Judgement and the Seven Acts of Mercy
Date1517-1525
Mediumoil on panel
Measurements248 × 406 cm
Inventory number741-745

More about this work

Picture of charity Several of the KMSKA’s masterpieces were located for many years in the Cathedral of Our Lady in Antwerp, including this imposing triptych by Bernard van Orley. The central panel depicts the Last Judgement: when the End Times come, the dead will rise from their graves to face Christ’s judgement as to who will spend eternity in Paradise and who will be dispatched to Hell. They are judged according to their conduct in life, with St Michael the Archangel weighing the souls of the dead in his scales. Those who had performed the ‘Seven Acts of Mercy’ could be confident of their place in Heaven. The seven acts are depicted in the triptych, with the ‘burial of the dead’ featuring in the central panel. In the panel on the left the thirsty are given something to drink, the hungry something to eat, and the homeless a roof over their head. The right-hand panel shows disabled beggars being offered clothes, while visits are paid to a sick man and to prisoners (who are even set free). The closed shutters, meanwhile, depict four saints, each of whom was a model of mercy. Bernard van Orley painted the work for the Chamber for Poor Relief (Armenkamer) which dispensed philanthropy and charity in Antwerp. The triptych offered its governors and almoners, drawn from the city’s social elite, a vivid foretaste of the potential reward or punishment that awaited them. Van Orley brought the Italian Renaissance to the Low Countries, as we see here not only in the architecture but also in the poses of the figures and the rendering of space. A band of cloud stretching across the three panels divides the composition into a heavenly (above) and an earthly realm (below). The celestial zone in the central panel swarms with angels, while the side panels show Mary on the left and what might be St Paul on the right, each accompanied by six of Jesus’ twelve disciples. They are here to mediate on behalf of the souls appearing before Christ, the Supreme Judge.