Le Jugement dernier de Fossa : une vision eschatologique intégrant la représentation du jugement immédiat

International audienceThe Last Judgment, painted between 1260 and 1280 on the west wall of Santa Maria ad Cryptas in Fossa, Abruzzo, partly reproduces the classical Byzantine formula by developing on the first register a representation of the immediate judgment, the particular judgement following death, and the Waiting Paradise where the just await the final resurrection. This hypothesis can be based on two strong arguments. On the one hand, the weighing of souls and this paradise embodied by the bosom of the patriarchs were represented in a similar iconographic and stylistic way in the paintings at Bominaco, where the temporal nature of the judgment is indicated by the presence of the death of the rich man. On the other hand, two souls gathered in the bosom of the patriarchs seem to be moving away, as though preparing to unite with their body at the resurrection and join the kingdom of heaven. This reading of the paintings at Fossa in terms of double judgment may also be applied to the paintings at Pomposa and may be considered for those at Sant’Angelo in Formis and Sommacampagna