ÿþ<html><head> <meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1"><title>DANIEL MITSUI ~ LAST JUDGMENT DRAWING</title> <style type="text/css"> .style1 {font-family: Times; font-size: 40px; color: #aaaaaa;} .style2 {font-family: Times; font-size: 18px; color: #aaaaaa;} </style> </head><body leftmargin="150" rightmargin="150" topmargin="100" text="#aaaaaa" vlink="#aaaaaa" bgcolor="#000000" link="#aaaaaa" marginheight="100" marginwidth="150"><header></header> <center> <span class="style1">LAST JUDGMENT DRAWING<br>by DANIEL MITSUI</span><br> <span class="style2">danmitsui [at] hotmail [dot] com<br><br><a href="http://www.danielmitsui.com/artwork/religious.html">return to religious art</a></span> <br> <br> <br> <a href="http://www.danielmitsui.com/artwork/big/religious/last_judgment.jpg"><img src="http://www.danielmitsui.com/artwork/big/religious/small_last_judgment.jpg" border="0" alt="LAST JUDGMENT DRAWING" /></a> <br><br> <table border="0"> <tr> <td><a href="http://danielmitsui.tripod.com/artwork/big/religious/last_judgment_detail1.jpg"><img border="0" alt="DETAIL" src="http://danielmitsui.tripod.com/artwork/big/religious/thumb_last_judgment_detail1.jpg"></a> <td><a href="http://danielmitsui.tripod.com/artwork/big/religious/last_judgment_detail2.jpg"><img border="0" alt="DETAIL" src="http://danielmitsui.tripod.com/artwork/big/religious/thumb_last_judgment_detail2.jpg"></a> <td><a href="http://danielmitsui.tripod.com/artwork/big/religious/last_judgment_detail3.jpg"><img border="0" alt="DETAIL" src="http://danielmitsui.tripod.com/artwork/big/religious/thumb_last_judgment_detail3.jpg"></a> <td><a href="http://danielmitsui.tripod.com/artwork/big/religious/last_judgment_detail4.jpg"><img border="0" alt="DETAIL" src="http://danielmitsui.tripod.com/artwork/big/religious/thumb_last_judgment_detail4.jpg"></a> <tr> <td><a href="http://danielmitsui.tripod.com/artwork/big/religious/last_judgment_detail5.jpg"><img border="0" alt="DETAIL" src="http://danielmitsui.tripod.com/artwork/big/religious/thumb_last_judgment_detail5.jpg"></a> <td><a href="http://danielmitsui.tripod.com/artwork/big/religious/last_judgment_detail6.jpg"><img border="0" alt="DETAIL" src="http://danielmitsui.tripod.com/artwork/big/religious/thumb_last_judgment_detail6.jpg"></a> <td><a href="http://danielmitsui.tripod.com/artwork/big/religious/last_judgment_detail7.jpg"><img border="0" alt="DETAIL" src="http://danielmitsui.tripod.com/artwork/big/religious/thumb_last_judgment_detail7.jpg"></a> <td><a href="http://danielmitsui.tripod.com/artwork/big/religious/last_judgment_detail8.jpg"><img border="0" alt="DETAIL" src="http://danielmitsui.tripod.com/artwork/big/religious/thumb_last_judgment_detail8.jpg"></a> <tr> <td><a href="http://danielmitsui.tripod.com/artwork/big/religious/last_judgment_detail9.jpg"><img border="0" alt="DETAIL" src="http://danielmitsui.tripod.com/artwork/big/religious/thumb_last_judgment_detail9.jpg"></a> <td><a href="http://danielmitsui.tripod.com/artwork/big/religious/last_judgment_detail10.jpg"><img border="0" alt="DETAIL" src="http://danielmitsui.tripod.com/artwork/big/religious/thumb_last_judgment_detail10.jpg"></a> <td><a href="http://danielmitsui.tripod.com/artwork/big/religious/last_judgment_detail11.jpg"><img border="0" alt="DETAIL" src="http://danielmitsui.tripod.com/artwork/big/religious/thumb_last_judgment_detail11.jpg"></a> <td><a href="http://danielmitsui.tripod.com/artwork/big/religious/last_judgment_detail12.jpg"><img border="0" alt="DETAIL" src="http://danielmitsui.tripod.com/artwork/big/religious/thumb_last_judgment_detail12.jpg"></a> </table> <br><br><i>Click above for larger images.</i> <br><br></center> I have long been fascinated with mediaeval Last Judgment iconography, and indeed I have drawn the Last Judgment before. A smaller drawing (see below), done on commission a few years ago, served as good practice for this larger, more ambitious work, in which I developed some of its better ideas and made many changes. <br><br> <center><a href="http://danielmitsui.tripod.com/artwork/big/religious/doom.jpg"><img border="0" src="http://danielmitsui.tripod.com/blogpics/judgment2.jpg"></a></center> <br><br> I referenced several works of art in the new drawing. A French engraving (see below) provided models for the figures of Christ, John the Baptist, the angels, St. Peter and some of the souls. I did not like the depiction of the Blessed Virgin in the engraving, so I based the figure in my drawing on Roger Van Der Weyden's famous painting. I based the figure of St. Michael on a Danish <i>kalkmaler</i>, or chalk painting, on the wall of Aarhus Cathedral. King David is based on a High Gothic statue; the Eritrean Sibyl on a woodcut in the Hours of Simon Vostre. <br><br> <center><a href="http://danielmitsui.tripod.com/blogpics/judgment1.jpg"><img border="0" src="http://danielmitsui.tripod.com/blogpics/judgment1a.jpg"></a></center> <br><br> The arrangement of the central portion of my drawing is traditional; amid the clouds, Christ is seated in majesty upon a rainbow, with his feet atop an <i>orbis terrarum</i>, displaying his wounds. A lily to his right indicates the hand of mercy; a sword to his left, the hand of justice. The Blessed Virgin and St. John the Baptist (dressed in a camel skin with the head still attached!) kneel and pray for the souls being judged. Angels hold the instruments of the Passion, or blow trumpets calling the dead to rise and come to judgment. <br><br> Below this, the Archangel Michael weighs a man's soul against grotesque figures representing the man's sins. To his right, the elect are welcomed into the gate of Paradise by St. Peter; to his right, the damned are carried, thrust and tossed into the gaping mouth of Hell. <br><br> For a long time, I have been carrying around the idea to draw the Last Judgment flanked by figures of King David and the Eritrean Sibyl, referring to the <i>Dies Irae</i>: <br><br> <center> Dies irae! Dies illa!<br>Solvet saeclum in favilla!<br>Teste David cum Sibylla! </center> <br><br> The first few verses of Thomas of Celano's sequence are written around the border of the drawing; David and the Sibyl hold scrolls on which their prophecies of Doom are written. David's has a portion of the 49th psalm; the Sibyl's has four verses from the <i>Oracula Sibyllina</i>. In the original Greek, the portion of the oracles relating to the end of the world is an acrostic; the first letters of each line spell out JESUS CHRIST, SON OF GOD, SAVIOR. The Latin translation quoted by St. Augustine in <i>De Civitate Dei</i> and used here preserves some of the acrostic; the four lines on the scroll spell out JESU with their initial letters. <br><br> The script used to write the words on the scrolls is my own invention. I first developed it about fifteen years ago. It has been modified over the years - by my incorporating some element from a script or typeface that I like, or discarding some feature that is difficult to write - but its essential features are the same, and I still use it regularly, especially for writing formal correspondence. I have never thought of a name for it. <br><br> This script, unlike historical scripts, was developed for writing with a ballpoint pen or fine-tipped felt pen, and presumes that the thickness of the written line will be the same no matter its direction. <br><br> In the border of the drawing, just inside the <i>Dies Irae</i> text, is some of my signature biological/microbiological decorative motif, which here includes dinosaur eggs, starfish, centipedes, mitochondria, chambered nautili, slugs, planarian worms, crabs, sand dollars, frogs, flowers, and cells in anaphase. <br><br> <center><a href="http://www.danielmitsui.com/hieronymus/index.blog/2044990/signs-of-the-end-of-the-world/"><img border="0" src="http://danielmitsui.tripod.com/blogpics/judgment3.jpg"></a></center> <br><br> In the corners of the drawing, just above and below David and the Sibyl, the <a href="http://www.danielmitsui.com/hieronymus/index.blog/2044990/signs-of-the-end-of-the-world/">15 cosmic signs of the end of the world</a>, according to St. Jerome, are drawn. The images are based on the illustrations in <i>L'Art de Bien Vivre et Bien Mourir</i>, published by Antoine V&eacute;rard in the late 15th century. The signs are: <blockquote> I. In certain places the sea will rise above the mountains. <br>II. It will then subside and sink into the depths of the earth. <br>III. Sea monsters will appear and make frightening sounds. <br>IV. The sea and all the rivers will burn. <br>V. Trees and plants will produce a vermillion sweat, like blood. <br>VI. All the Buildings of earth will crumble. <br>VII. Stones will collide and break against each other. <br>VIII. The earth will shake and open. <br>IX. Mountains will be leveled to the ground. <br>X. The living who have hidden themselves in underground shelters will rush out. <br>XI. The earth will vomit up the dead and their bones will come out of their tombs. <br>XII. The stars will fall from the heavens and the beasts will have nothing to eat. <br>XIII. All that is living on earth will die. <br>XIV. Fire will burn sky and earth. <br>XV. The dead will rise to be judged by God. </blockquote> <br><br><br> <center> <span class="style2">all works (c) Daniel Mitsui<span> </center></body></html>