Metropolitan Museum Of Art Analysis

While roaming around The Metropolitan Museum of Art, I witnessed thousands and thousands of different paintings, sculptures, ceramics, and many other beautiful and famous works of art. Being my first time at the museum, I was very overwhelmed. The MET Gala, which is held every year on the first Monday in May, is an event to raise money for the Costume Institute of the museum and as a fashion major, this a very exciting affair that I’ve always wanted to witness or at the very least visit the place where it is held. I was a little upset that I had to go before the Gala because the annual fashion department show still isn’t up, but I put my disappointment aside and decided to admire all the other beauties that were present. Although there were

a few that I considered alluring, there was one particular painting located in Gallery 639 that was very intriguing and this was The Last Judgment by a Netherlandish painter called Joos van Cleve.

Made with oil on wood, it dates around the 1520’s and its dimensions are around 48 x 34 inches. I considered this art very captivating because it has so many things occurring in just one canvas and a lot of intense detail that tie the painting together.
The first thing that I noticed was that color and people’s expressions took a huge piece of the artwork. There is a big division in 4 different quadrants which separates the painting in terms of worlds. On the lower left side people seem to be happy and looking up at Christ, with angels on his upper left and right side. On the lower right side people seem to be in misery and pain, and almost most of them give the impression like they’re looking away from Christ. We can clearly tell this

artwork is religious and it appears to be discussing the final decision between the good and the evil, heaven and hell. The image of Christ in the middle and the two angels blowing trumpets on both his sides signal the end of times, no matter where you’re going. In the middle foreground there’s an angel wearing a blue/grey robe and he’s holding what looks like a wand, pointing towards the right side where the people that are being sent to hell are. He seems to be making the division between both worlds and the one condemning those who did wrong. While observing this scene you can get two different types of feelings, depending on what area you look at. On the left side, there seems to be hope and and a sense of relief for those who were spared by Christ and granted entrance to heaven with the lord and an eternity filled with peace and happiness while on the right side there is agony and despair for those that are deemed to be damned for eternity. The placing of Jesus’ hands shows the left hand path and the right hand path. His left hand is pointing up to that side, signaling heaven and how uplifting it is, while his right one is pointing lower, a symbol of the misfortune that is lived there.
As soon as I laid eyes on this painting, I couldn’t help but notice the abundance of color that there is in it. I was specifically drawn to the vivid red-colored robe that Christ is wearing. The use of this color could be a symbol of the authoritarian place Christ held in the Church or it could also be a representation of the sacrifice that the Lord made for us and how his spirit still leaves on, as well as a hidden symbol for the hellfire pit that is present on the right side of the art. Aside from red, there are three other primary colors present. One is the bright yellow that we can observe in the sun on the background, another is a light blue in the bright beautiful sky behind Christ on the left side, and the last one would be the green seen in the bottom part of the painting, representing what would be the earth. I was also very attracted to how Van Cleve mixed the clouds with a darker blue in some areas, especially on the lower right side. This helps us observe the torment that this people are going through and that they’re about to live a life filled with woe and grief.
When I really observe the picture, I feel a hint of the use of perspective to give depth to the picture and more mystery.

In the painting, the artist divided two different groups of people on each side of it. The blurry image of the people and them getting smaller makes them seem like they’re farther away from getting to their respective places, while the others in the foreground are bigger and make them seem more important and closer to Christ. In the top center we can observe Christ, and the bright yellow sun pointing right behind him helps us, the viewers, look at the painting in an upward motion, creating the focus point of the art. He’s also placed on top of everyone else, with the patrons and angels surrounding him and making him be what he is, a God. The size he’s painted in, compared to the humans at the bottom also symbolizes

this.