The icon “The Last Judgment” depicts scenes that, according to church traditions, will take place after the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. It is believed that each person will appear before the Judge and everyone will be held accountable for their deeds and judged by their merits.

“When looking at the Novgorod icon of the first quarter of the 15th century, one can clearly understand all the diverse characteristics of the tumultuous era of the Novgorod Republic that were reflected in this image, painted by a prominent independent artist and sophisticated theologian. In fact, I have never seen such a clear representation of the Last Judgment“, wrote Adolf Nikolayevich Ovchinnikov, a renowned expert in medieval painting techniques, when restoring the icon in 2011.

The icon depicts the scene of the Last Judgment and its consequences. The complex composition is divided into several registers.

In the upper register, God the Father is depicted in a white heavenly vestment, with a rolled scroll in His hand, sitting in a round mandorla with nine seraphim. In the right half of the upper register, God the Son is depicted in apostolic vestments, sitting on a throne, surrounded by the praying Mother of God, John the Forerunner and the angels. A fiery river flows from the feet of Christ, carrying sinners into the fiery hell.

To the left of Christ in white vestments, the icon painter depicted the Tabernacle and the Fathers of the Church in white vestments, divided into three groups.

The third register includes images of everything that is related to the visible world. In the left part of the icon, a procession of the righteous marches along the “lapis lazuli cloud”. On the right side, there is a crowd of sinners. Paradise and the Virgin sitting on the throne with two Archangels are depicted under the righteous.

Below is the “Bosom of Abraham” with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and the Penitent Thief. Under the group of sinners are the earth and the sea, giving up the dead, and the fiery hell, where Satan sits on a hellish beast, holding the soul of Judas on his knees.

Thus, the world is divided in two: to the right hand of Christ is the righteous world, and to the left hand is the sinful one, doomed to eternal torment.