Last Judgment

Frans Floris established a workshop in Antwerp by 1540, then embarked on a trip to Rome to study the art of antiquity. Very likely he witnessed the unveiling of Michelangelo's Last Judgment fresco in the Sistine Chapel in 1541, and he studied and sketched works by other Italian masters, including Raphael, Giulio Romano, and Tintoretto. It was Michelangelo who made the strongest impression on him. In Floris's Last Judgment the figures are Michelangelesque and assume contorted postures like those of the damned in Michelangelo's fresco in the Sistine Chapel.