Doom (painting)

A Doom is a traditional English term for a painting or other image of the Last Judgment in Christian eschatology when Christ judges souls to sends them to either Heaven or Hell. The subject was very commonly painted on a large scale on the western wall of churches, so it was viewed as people left the church, and the term is typically used of these, rather than depictions of the Last Judgement in other locations or media. Many examples survive as wall-paintings in medieval churches, most dating from around the 12th to 13th centuries, although the subject was common from the 1st millennium until (in countries remaining Catholic) the Counter-Reformation. The most famous of all doom paintings, The Last Judgment by Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapel, painted in 1537 to 1541, comes at the end of the tradition, and is unusually sited on the east wall behind the altar.