The Last Judgment in St. Martin's Chapel, Salamanca
14th century (except bottom register, 12th century)
Fresco
Chapel of St. Martin, Old Cathedral, Salamanca, Spain
Enthroned in a mandorla Christ shows the viewer his five wounds. All that is seen of the Father is his throne upon the cherubim, as in Ezekiel 10:1, "behold in the firmament that was over the heads of the cherubims, there appeared over them as it were the sapphire stone, as the appearance of the likeness of a throne."
On an altar directly beneath the mandorla a cross, spear, and rod with a sponge stand erect, and a crown of thorns, nails, and scourge lie flat. These are of course the instruments of the Passion.
On the left of the mandorla are the Virgin Mary and five apostles: (left to right) Thaddeus, James, Andrew, John, and Peter. On the right are St. Paul and a number of Old Testament figures: King David (right of Paul, with a sword), Judas Maccabeus (far right, also with a sword), and three others whose labels have become illegible.
In the lower register angels blow their horns and direct the souls from their tombs to the right and left. Those on the right are then led to the gate of the New Jerusalem, pictured as a likeness of the Jerusalem on earth with its domed Church of the Holy Sepulchre. On the left, angels with pikes shove the unjust into Hell.
The entire fresco, both the 12th- and the 14th-century parts, is painted over the same black ground with repeated brown squares. This would suggest that the upper part was intended to replicate whatever preceded it. Its very traditional iconography would support that surmise.
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Photographed at the chapel by Richard Stracke, shared under Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license.