The Last Judgment (Beaune Altarpiece)
Sizes
One object, sold whole, as Hôtel-Dieu, Hospices Civils de Beaune shows it. 9 sheets, one edition, $949 — the printed panels are at one scale within 3.8%.
Most days the sick saw only the closed shutters: Nicolas Rolin and Guigone de Salins, kneeling in prayer, facing each other. The Hôtel-Dieu records that the polyptych stood on the altar of the chapel, which opens onto the Great Hall of the Poor, and was opened to the patients only on Sundays and feast days.
Opened, its nine panels show the Judgment. Four angels announce it at Christ's feet, and between them the archangel Michael, in a white robe and a scarlet mantle, weighs the risen.
The Hôtel-Dieu singles out his face. Holding the scales, it is impassive.
Nine panels in two storeys as at Beaune: three panels either side of St Michael in the lower row, and his tall centre panel rising between the two small upper panels. Printed at one scale, the upper panels are 14 in high and the centre 40 in, as they are to each other on the altarpiece; hung as a row they would lie about the object.
Printed on demand as one edition. The whole image is printed on every sheet — never cropped to fit — so each panel carries an archival margin.