Wikipedia:Today's featured article/March 29, 2013

The Crucifixion and Last Judgement diptych consists of two small painted panels attributed to the Early Netherlandish artist Jan van Eyck, completed c. 1430–40. The left hand Crucifixion wing (part pictured) shows Christ's followers grieving in the foreground, soldiers and spectators in the mid-ground and a brutally physical portrayal of three crucified bodies in the upper-ground, all framed against an azure sky with a view of Jerusalem in the distance. The right hand Last Judgment wing contains imagery associated with the resurrection of the dead: a hellscape at its base, the lost awaiting judgement in the centre-ground, and a representation of Christ in Majesty flanked by a Great Deësis of saints, apostles, clergy, virgins and nobility in the upper section. The diptych is one of the early master-pieces of the Northern Renaissance, renowned for its unusually complex and detailed iconography. Portions of the work contain Greek, Latin and Hebrew inscriptions while the original gilt frames contain excerpts from biblical passages inscribed in Latin and drawn from the books of Isaiah, Deuteronomy and Revelation. The panels were acquired by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1933 while attributed to Jan's brother Hubert. (Full article...)

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