Adam and Eve before the Divine Court,
oil on copper, 30 x 47.5 cm, framed

Provenance:
with Gasparrini, Rome;
where acquired by the present owner

The present painting is a rare representation of the Last Judgement, according to the changed religious concepts following the Lutheran Reformation: it is not through merit or good deeds that human kind can be absolved, but only through God’s grace and mercy. The image embodies the protestant spirit and can be interpreted as an iconographic statement with pedagogical intentions.

Adam and Eve are bound together by the serpent of sin and are accompanied by the devil, possibly dressed as a papal guard. The composition refers to mediaeval court images: the sinful couple is presented in front of God the Father, who will pass sentence, and in front of Christ, who has atoned for the guilt of their forefathers. In front of them, on a table, lie the tablets of the law and the bitten apple.

The personifications of the virtues now take the place of the saints, who for centuries have been seen as mediators between sinful man and God. The four divine sisters (Psalm 85:11) approach the table: Justitia, with sword and scales, and Veritas on the right side, on the other Mercy and Pax with the dove.

Exchanges with Northern European countries helped to spread the ideas of the Reformation in Italy, especially in northern and central cities. Protestant groups proliferated in Mantua, Ferrara, Milan and Lucca; the Sienese Lelio Sozzini (1525-1562) began effective preaching.

In the Museumsquartier St. Annen, Lübeck, there is a very similar subject by the Monogrammist JAR, dated to circa 1570 (inv. no.1987-38). Also in the Frauenkirche in Meissen, Saxony, a large-format painting by the school of Cranach depicts the Last Judgement above an epitaph (see A. Blühm, Der Streit der Tugenden um die Menschheit – Ein Beitrag zur Ikonographie der Reformationszeit, in: Niederdeutsche Beiträge zur Kunstgeschichte, 28, 1989, pp. 64-75).