Artwork Page for Heaven and Hell

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Heaven and Hell

c. 1850

Octave Tassaert

(French, 1800–1874)
Culture
France, 19th century
Medium
oil on fabric
Measurements
Framed: 121 x 90.5 x 6.5 cm (47 5/8 x 35 5/8 x 2 9/16 in.); Unframed: 100 x 69.5 cm (39 3/8 x 27 3/8 in.)
Credit Line
Bequest of Noah L. Butkin 1980.287
Public Domain
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Location
Not on view
Print

Description

This painting focuses upon the struggle between good and evil for the soul of a young woman. Looking out at the viewer, she is shown in the upper center of the composition, immediately below an angel and directly above Satan. At the upper right Saint Michael—holding scales for weighing the goodness of souls—admits the blessed to Heaven. Below, the Damned struggle to avoid the fiery pits of Hell and the demons that will torment them for eternity. At the time Tassaert painted this work, France was undergoing considerable political upheaval. In 1848, the country was wracked by a civil war between royalist and republican forces. Tassaert himself believed strongly in the Republic, and probably intended the young woman—caught between the sensual, worldly temptations of royalist excesses and the noble, pure ideals of the Republic—to personify the country of France.
A vertically oriented oil painting depicts an intertwining column of nude bodies with light skin tone rising in the lower left. A nude person with medium-light skin tone leans up and back at the top of the column, reaching for a woman with light skin tone floating above him wearing rippling garments, hugging herself and looking out at us. From the dark gray clouds, one of several angels with light skin tones reaches down for her. Left, another winged person holds weighing scales, while, two more winged figures stand against a blue and yellow sky along the upper edge, one holding a sword.

Heaven and Hell

c. 1850

Octave Tassaert

(French, 1800–1874)
France, 19th century

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