Beaune: Rogier van der Weyden

Considering its size, nowhere in the whole of western Europe was richer in the later Middle Ages than Burgundy; but the ostentation and extravagance of the wealthy only served to highlight the misery of the poor, who were dependent on their charity. Nicholas Rolin, Chancellor to Philip the Good, built the Hôtel de Dieu at Beaune in the fifteenth century as a combined hospital and chapel for the sick, the aged, and the poor. For the chapel, Rolin commissioned Rogier van der Weyden to create a many-paneled painting of the Last Judgment, which was unshuttered only on holy days. This powerful work of art - the good flying heavenwards to eternal bliss, the wicked pulled down to the fiery depths of hell - was a stark reminder to the invalids that they must always be prepared to meet their God ...