Sheep and Goats

This fresco consists of individual scenes representing the works of mercy. Christ appears above each scene emerging from a cloud. He holds the Scriptures in one hand, and with the other he points down at one of the persons receiving assistance, recalling the passage in the description of the Last Judgement in which Christ exclaims: ‘as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me’ (Matthew 25:40).

This fresco is an outstanding visual testimony to the charitable practices of a late medieval confraternity, the Consortium Vivorum et Defunctorum (Consortium of the Living and the Dead), which was based in the Cathedral of Parma. In every scene, the benefactor performing the works of mercy is a bearded man with a wrinkled face dressed in a white cloak—probably the habit worn by members of the Consortium to perform good works.

The depictions of beneficiaries are also remarkable. In the scene representing the work of feeding the hungry (top register, right), we see beggars on crutches. In giving drink to the thirsty (middle register, left), one of them has lost both his hands—his stumps are dressed in bandages—and the benefactor is helping him to drink wine out of a large glass beaker. In clothing the naked (middle register, right), we see three healthy young men; the benefactor is clothing one of them with a shirt, whilst his two companions await their turn in their breeches. By contrast, the beneficiaries in lodging the stranger (top register, left) are pilgrims wearing coats and hats, one pinned with the shell of St James.

The seventh work of mercy, burying the dead (Tobit 12:12), was depicted to the right of the base of the vertical rectangle containing the six works from Matthew 25:35–36. Of this scene, only a few traces of pigment remain, but we can still see the shape of Christ's cloud and his pointing arm.

‘You did it to me’. In each pointing gesture Christ reveals his presence, incognito, in a different form. We discover just how close he may be.

This monumental painted panel represents the Last Judgement and includes the first known cycle of works of mercy inspired by Matthew 25:35–36.

The cycle, consisting of three scenes, begins just to the right of the centre of the third register. In the first scene, a haloed cleric is helping a sick man to drink from a ewer. In the second, a further blessed benefactor—this one dressed like a layman in a short tunic—is comforting a prisoner. In the third scene another haloed layman is helping a naked pauper to put on a shirt. At a glance, the cycle appears to include only three of the six good deeds mentioned in the scriptural passage: visiting the sick, visiting prisoners, and clothing the naked. However, by providing water to the sick man, the cleric is also giving drink to the thirsty; moreover, he carries a basket of bread which alludes to feeding the hungry. And although the good deed of lodging the stranger may initially appear to be missing from this cycle, it was often suggested through the representation of a figure against an architectural backdrop (to suggest an indoor location before the advent of pictorial perspective). So the missing work of mercy is most likely represented here in the first and the third scenes.  

This extraordinary panel was painted for San Gregorio Nazianzieno, the church of the monastery of Santa Maria in Campo Marzio in Rome, then inhabited by a community of canonesses. Together with the now very damaged frescoes of the legends of Saints Clement and Alexis in the lower church of San Clemente, it is a rare surviving example of the sophisticated visual religious culture of eleventh-century Rome.

The practitioners of the works of mercy represented here may be no more than generic portrayals of the righteous, following the late-antique convention of depicting virtues with haloes, or may represent specific saints in the Roman hagiographic tradition. For instance, they may depict the deacon Cyriacus and his companions, Largus and Smeragdus, three early Christian martyr saints who performed good deeds and were venerated by Roman female religious communities.

In this fresco, the seven works of mercy are depicted within eight of the eleven medallions inserted in the decorative border of the lavish liturgical cope worn by the central female figure. She is identified by an inscription on her tiara as 'MISERICORDIA DOMINI' ('Mercy of the Lord'). The first six works of mercy appear in the sequence in which they are mentioned in Matthew 25:35–36 (read left to right in descending order) and are accompanied by the corresponding scriptural passages. The seventh work, burying the dead (Tobit 12:12), is illustrated in the bottom two medallions, with a funeral procession (right) and the body of the deceased being lowered into a grave (left).

This imposing fresco was painted in the headquarters of the Compagnia di Santa Maria della Misericordia (Confraternity of Saint Mary of Mercy), today the Museo del Bigallo, Florence. The Misericordia was one of the most important confraternities in fourteenth-century Florence. The fresco illustrates, by means of a complex allegory, the role of mercy in the salvation of humankind, which is highlighted by inscriptions. For instance, to either side of the figure's head, we discover the verse in Jesus’s description of the Last Judgement inviting the merciful to take possession of the eternal kingdom (Matthew 25:34), and on the crown of her tiara a prominent Greek letter 'Tau'—in Ezekiel 9:3–9, those who were chosen to survive the destruction of Jerusalem were marked on their foreheads with the letter.

To either side of the central figure, we see groups of devotees: men to her right and women to her left. These are remarkable as characterizations of different ages and situations in life—the women in the front row are notable for their opulent costumes. Whether they represent members of the Misericordia or are just generic portrayals of Florentine citizens remains open to interpretation. Protected beneath the hem of Mercy’s robe, we discover the earliest known ‘portrait’ of the city of Florence. Indeed, by performing the works of mercy, the Misericordia was working towards the salvation of the entire citizenry.