December 6 - A History of Art - Pietro Cavallini - The Last Judgment

Pietro Cavallini was active from 1273 to 1308. He was in all likelihood a leading artist of his time. His two major surviving works are mosaics of the Life of the Virgin (Sta Maria in Trastevere, signed and dated 1291) and a fragmentary fresco cycle, the most important part of which is a Last Judgement (Sta Cecilia in Trastevere, Rome).

He was the first artist to make a significant break with the stylizations of Byzantine art, and his majestic figures have a real sense of weight and three-dimensionality. His work undoubtedly influenced his great contemporary Giotto, whose Last Judgement in the Arena Chapel at Padua features Apostles enthroned exactly as in Cavallini's fresco of the subject.

The Last Judgment (detail of The Apostles); 1295-1300 (60 Kb); Wall painting; Santa Cecilia at Trastevere, Rome

For other detailed images of The Last Judgment, check out Web Gallery of Art. If you click on the thumbnail size images, you will go to a much larger and more detailed image of this artwork. Not only did Cavallini move away from the Byzantine style with the pale colors that he used, but his work was notable for the individuality of the faces personifying Christ and his apostles. Each was painted to reflect the man's character and not to be the archetypal ideal.