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Representing the Last Judgement: Social Hierarchy, Gender and Sin

Kunsthistorisches Institut, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Universitätsstr. 150, D-44801 Bochum, Germany

This article analyses painted representations of the Last Judgement in medieval Italian art. These large frescoes provided religious education to viewers and furnished a set of rules and norms governing social conduct. Verdicts imposed on recognisable groups of persons are examined to uncover ways in which political, social and gender hierarchies were prescribed and reaffirmed. In contrast to earlier representations, the depiction of Hell in this art focuses on the consequences of the verdict. Female sexuality in general and certain forms of male sexual offences such as the transgression of the vows of asceticism by monks, or sodomy are central to punishments. The spoken and unspoken norms of late medieval urban life were legitimised as divine verdicts in these representations, now endowed with a powerful normative significance.

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