The Last Judgment

Series Title: Dance of Death:

c. 1526

Hans Holbein the Younger

(German, active England and Switzerland, 1497/98–1543)

Culture

Germany

Medium

woodcut

Measurements

Sheet: 7 x 4.6 cm (2 3/4 x 1 13/16 in.)

Credit Line

Gift of The Print Club of Cleveland 1929.170

Catalogue raisonné

Passavant vol.3.366.39

You can copy, modify, and distribute this work, all without asking permission. Learn more about CMA's Open Access Initiative.

Location

Not on view

Description

In this final, dramatic episode in Hans Holbein’s Dance of Death series Christ sits on high, surrounded by heavenly figures, poised to send the resurrected dead to their ultimate destinations of heaven or hell. The end of humanity’s time on Earth connects with its beginnings: bodies here are as naked and vulnerable as those of Adam and Eve at the Creation. Awakened from their graves and reanimated, the dead raise their hands beseechingly to Christ. Those judged to have lived virtuously will go to their resurrection, a sort of spiritual rebirth in heaven, while the sinful face eternal torment.