Group from the Last Judgment, Angels Carrying the Column of the Flagellation and the Sponge and Ladder of the Crucifixion
16th century
Medium
Engraving
Dimensions
Sheet: 9 5/16 × 16 7/8 in. (23.7 × 42.8 cm) Plate (lunette shape): 7 11/16 × 16 7/8 in. (19.5 × 42.8 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1959
Accession Number
59.596.23
Tags
Art Historical Context
This striking 16th-century engraving a dramatic vignette from Michelangelo Buonarroti monumental *Last Judgment* fresco on the Sistine Chapel's altar wall, completed between 1536 and 1541. Titled *Group from the Last Judgment Angels Carrying the Column of the Flagellation and the Sponge and Ladder of the Crucifixion*, it depicts muscular angels triumphantly bearing key instruments of Christ's Passion—the column where Jesus was scourged, the sponge offered on a reed, and the ladder used in his crucifixion. These symbols evoke the emotional intensity and theological depth of Michelangelo's visio...
About the Artist
Michelangelo Buonarroti|Domenico del Barbiere · 1475–1564
Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (1475–1564) stands as the quintessential figure of the Italian High Renaissance, a sculptor, painter, architect, and poet whose mastery across disciplines embodied the era's humanist ideals. Born on March 6, 1475, in Caprese within the Republic of Florence to a modest family—his father, Lodovico di Buonarroti Simoni, served as a minor magistrate—Michelang...