A monumental church icon of the Last Judgment, Volga Town, late-17th century

The icon should be read from left to right and from top to bottom. It depicts the Last Judgement, the moment when Christ reappears in the Second Coming to judge the souls of the living and the dead. Such icons existed already in Byzantine times, but became especially popular in the 17^th century, and particularly in Yaroslavl and the towns along the Volga to the north east of Moscow; the political vacuum left after the death of Ivan the Terrible, and then the great schism that tore Russia apart when Nikon introduced his Church reforms in the second half of the 17^th century, no doubt contributed to this eschatological mood. They also became much more complicated, with the addition of scenes and details that appealed to local lore. No other subject in Russian iconography is better described by Evgenii Trubetskoi’s famous phrase “theology in colour”.

Many of the scenes and events depicted are references to Old Testament prophesies or Church texts. At the top of the icon we see the sun, stars and the moon at either end of a scroll being held aloft by Angels. This refers to a prophesy from Revelations (6:14) that states that on Judgement Day the heavens will be rolled up like a scroll.

Compositionally, the icon is centred upon a depiction of Christ, who appears at the centre of a Deisis with the Mother of God to his right and John the Baptist to his left. Further to his left and right are twelve Apostles holding open Gospels, and behind them, various Angels; and above them, rows of Kings, Prophets and Bishops; all of them, led by the Mother of God, intercede to Christ on behalf of sinners.

At Christ’s feet are Adam and Eve, traditionally the first to be raised from the dead; below them is the Etimasia, the Throne prepared and ready for the Second Coming of Christ, and on it the cross of the Crucifixion. Around the cross four Angels with trumpets herald the event, as predicted in Revelations.

From the cloud containing the Etimasia descends the “Hand of God”, in the process of weighing a human soul. He is naked, because he cannot be protected by anything worldly such as money or influence. Demons place sins in the scale on the right-hand side, but Archangel Michael drops a handkerchief which tips the balance to the left-hand scale. This is a reference to well-known story of a sinner who gave a handkerchief to a beggar.

At the human soul’s feet begins the Serpent of Tribulations, along which are stations depicting the particular torments for specific groups of sinners, culminating in the Devil astride a beast in fiery flames. On the Devil’s lap sits the unrighteous soul, often identified as Judas Iscariot. To the left of the Etimasia stands Moses, pointing at Christ while looking at a group of naked non-Orthodox peoples, Jews, Turks and Europeans, identifiable by their head-dresses, who are all being pushed into the flames by a group of Angels.

To the right of the Etimasia stand groups of the Righteous and the Saved, including Saints, Kings and Bishops, some already in Paradise, others being shown through the Gates of Paradise by an Angel, while below them from the earth and the sea emerge souls waiting for judgement. Between them and the flames is a naked figure tied to a post; he is the Kindly Adulterer, a man who although a sinner did many good deeds, and is therefore spared the torments of hell by Archangel Michael. This, and other scenes on Last Judgement icons, come from a tenth century Byzantine manuscript that became popular in Russia describing the life of Saint Basil the Younger; in actual fact, Orthodoxy does not believe that there is an intermediary place between heaven and hell.

For a fuller and more detailed description of this complex iconography, see Boris Knorre, Icon of the Last Judgement: A Detailed Analysis, published on the website of the Museum of Russian Icons in Clinton, Massachusets, https://www.museumofrussianicons.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/KnorreLastJudgmentFinal.pdf