Apocalypse. Camille Flammarion
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Titus, peace, in the year 71 CE succeeded war, and – the end of the world still did not come to pass.
Once more, it became necessary to reinterpret the words of the evangelists. The coming of Christ was put off until after the fall of the Roman Empire, and thus considerable margin was given to the commentator.
The Infernal Chaos around Satan
Atributted to Coppo di Marcovaldo, c. 1270
Mosaic
Battistero di San Giovanni, Florence
A firm belief in a final and even an imminent catastrophe persisted, but it was embedded in vague terms, which robbed the spirit as well as the letter of the prophecy of all precision. Still, the conviction remained.
St Augustine devotes the 20th book of the City of God (426) to the regeneration of the world, the resurrection, the last judgement, and the New Jerusalem;
Last Judgement (tympanum, west portal, detail)
Gislebertus, c. 1120–1135
Cathédrale Saint-Lazare, Autun
in the 21st book he describes the everlasting torments of hell-fire. A witness to the fall of Rome and the Empire, the Bishop of Carthage believed these events to be the first act of the drama. But the Kingdom of God would continue for a thousand more years before the rise of Satan.
Last Judgement (tympanum), Bourges Cathedral
c. 1270
Sculpture
Cathédrale Saint-Étienne de Bourges, Bourges
St Gregory, Bishop of Tours (573), the first historian of the Franks, began his history as follows:
As I am about to relate the wars of the kings with hostile nations, I feel impelled to declare my belief. The terror with which men await the end of the world decides me to chronicle the years already passed, that thus one may know exactly how many have elapsed since the beginning of the world.
Last Judgement, Christ Enthroned
c. 1270
Sculpture
Cathédrale Saint-Étienne de Bourges, Bourges
The saviour had come to deliver mankind. What was he waiting for, transportation to Heaven?
This Christian tradition was perpetuated year on year and century on century, despite nature’s evidence to the contrary.
The Demons Are Cast out of Arezzo (detail)
Giotto di Bondone, 1296–1297
Fresco
Basilica San Francesco d’Assisi, Assisi
Every catastrophe, earthquake, epidemic, famine, and flood, every phenomenon, eclipse, comet, storm, sudden darkness, and tempest, was regarded as the forerunner and herald of the final cataclysm.
The Last Judgement (detail)
Giotto di Bondone, 1302–1305
Fresco
Capella degli Scrovegni (Arena Chapel), Padua
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