"Many mezzotints of the pictures were sold, but the vastness and theatricality of Martin's visions now appeared outmoded to the mid-Victorians, and the paintings themselves failed to find a buyer. By the twentieth century Martin's work had fallen into obscurity and he became known as 'Mad Martin'. In 1935 the triptych was sold for seven pounds and the separate panels dispersed. It was reunited by the Tate in 1974."
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| John Martin The Last Judgement 1853 oil on canvas Tate Britain |
"The subjects are taken from the Book of Revelation. The Last Judgement illustrates the central event of the Book, and is composed from various passages in the narrative. On a throne in the heavens sits God in judgement, surrounded by the four and twenty elders. The four angels have sounded their trumpets after the opening of the Seventh Seal. Below on the right the forces of evil commanded by Satan are defeated; the armies of Gog and Magog tumble into the bottomless pit. To the left on Mount Zion are the good, already in the 'plains of heaven' and awaiting the call to appear before the throne. The principal figures were identified in an engraved key published in 1855 by Leggatt, Haward and Leggatt to accompany the picture. The damned include richly dressed women, notably Herodias's daughter and the whore of Babylon, lawyers, and churchmen who have sought only worldly wealth. The saved, at God's right hand, are anonymous figures of virtuous women and innocent children, true lovers, martyrs, philanthropists, and foreground, portraits of the famous. Among the good, Martin has included a high percentage of artists and poets, as well as statesmen and philosophers. These include Thomas More, Wesley, Canute, Dante, Washington, Copernicus, Newton, Watt, Chaucer, Tasso Corneille, Shakespeare, Michelangelo, Rubens, Dürer, and Wilkie. The great men are ranged in a timeless tableau; Martin reproduces their best known images. Included among the contemporary detail is a railway train plunging into an abyss, its carriages marked 'London', 'Paris', and so on."
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| John Martin The Plains of Heaven 1851-53 oil on canvas Tate Britain |
"Of the three panels, this is Martin's most serene vision. In the central panel, The Last Judgement, he separates good and evil by a great chasm, into which the evil are falling. On the far side are the good, assembling on the 'plains of heaven'. The landscape in which they have gathered continues in this picture, creating a vision of natural harmony. Martin includes a number of poets and artists among the good, who are gathered like white clouds on the crest of the hill in the foreground of the picture. Behind them stretches the deep blue expanse of a heavenly alpine lake, filled by the rushing water of the distant falls, and surrounded by majestic mountain scenery. . . . The luminous city of Jerusalem is just visible in the background of the picture, floating in the dream-like atmosphere of the heavenly landscape."
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| John Martin The Great Day of His Wrath 1851-53 oil on canvas Tate Britain |
"Of all Martin's biblical scenes, this presents his most cataclysmic vision of destruction, featuring an entire city being torn up and thrown into the abyss. The Book of Judgement is sealed with seven seals. As each seal is broken, mysterious and terrifying events occur, culminating in the breaking of the sixth seal: and, lo, there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood; and the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind. And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. Martin follows the biblical description closely, but adds his own sensational effects. A blood-red glow casts an eerie light over the scene. The mountains are transformed into rolling waves of solid rock, crushing any buildings that lie in their wake. Lightning splits the giant boulders which crash towards the dark abyss, and groups of helpless figures tumble inexorably towards oblivion."
– quoted passages based on notes by curators at the Tate in London