Pinacoteca Room I

The Last Judgement by Nicolaus and Johannes has an unusual outline, rounded above a rectangular base. Follow its horizontal bands. Figures appear in successive levels, from Christ and angels above to the dead rising and the opposed destinations of heaven and hell below. Latin texts accompany the scenes. The painting came from an oratory in Rome and is generally dated to the second half of the twelfth century. Its shape and stacked episodes give it a different way of organizing a sacred story from a single scene with one shared setting. Bernardo Daddi’s small St Stephen panels offer another sequence. They once formed the base, or predella, of a larger altarpiece. They tell Stephen’s martyrdom and the medieval story of the discovery and movement of his remains. A group of small pictures can ask you to read episode by episode, while the larger Judgement gathers a whole Christian vision of the end of time.