Pseudepigrapha and Last Judgment Iconography
Pseudepigrapha and Last Judgment Iconography

Examples from the Church of the Ascension in Luzhany

Author(s): Daria Coșcodan
Subject(s): Christian Theology and Religion, History, Middle Ages, Theology and Religion, History of Religion
Published by: Trivent Publishing
Keywords: Luzhany; Bukovina; Moldavian art; Last Judgment; eschatology; death; senses; pseudepigrapha; hagiography
Summary/Abstract: Erected in 1453-1456 and situated in Northern Bukovina (today in Ukraine), the Church of Ascension in Luzhany represents the oldest extant witness of medieval Moldavian monumental art. The scenes depicting the “death of the righteous” and the “death of the sinner” from its Last Judgment cycle are analysed here according to their literary sources, which include Old Testament pseudepigrapha and medieval hagiographic literature. Based on the implications from these extra-biblical sources, it is argued that the eschatological focus of these two scenes is reinforced by the sensorial experience associated with the moment of death.

• Details
• Contents