Trittico: Il Giudizio Universale

Fra Angelico was a Dominican friar before he was a painter, and by the middle of the 15th century he was among the most sought-after artists in Florence, trusted with altarpieces and frescoes across the city. This small triptych folds the whole drama of the Last Judgment into a few panels: Christ enthroned at the top, and below him the sorting of humanity, the blessed rising on one side toward the light, the damned driven down into fire on the other. Beneath runs a predella with scenes from the life of Saint Francis. It was made to be looked at closely, on an altar or in private prayer, not from across a nave. The gold ground and the clear bright colours were laid in egg tempera on poplar, the ordinary panel wood of Tuscany.