[Chartres Cathedral, Central Portal of the South Transept; The Last Judgment]
1855, printed 1857
![[Chartres Cathedral, Central Portal of the South Transept; The Last Judgment] by Charles Nègre](https://images.artheonmuseum.org/met/ph/thumb/chartres-cathedral-central-portal-of-the-south-267296.webp)
Medium
Photogravure
Dimensions
60.0 x 48.5 cm. (23 5/8 x 19 1/16 in.)
Classification
Photographs|Prints
Department
Photographs
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of Charles Isaacs, 1995
Accession Number
1995.562
Tags
Art Historical Context
Step into the intricate world of 19th-century photography with Charles Nègre's *Chartres Cathedral, Central Portal the South Transept The Last Judgment* (5, printed 1857). This striking photogravure captures the splendor of one of France's most iconichedrals, zooming in on the south transept's central portal Adorned with medieval sculptures depicting the Last Judgment—Christ enthroned above, angels, the saved, and the damned— the portal is a vivid testament to 13th-century theology and artistry, blending terror and hope in stone. Nègre, a pioneering French photographer, documented historic ar...
About the Artist
Charles Nègre · 1820–1880
Charles Nègre (1820–1880) was a French painter and photographer who became one of the most innovative practitioners of early photography. Born in Grasse in the south of France, he trained as a painter in Paris under Paul Delaroche, Michel Martin Drolling, and Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres at the École des Beaux-Arts. He initially took up the calotype and later the collodion process as aids to his ...