The Last Judgment, plate V, after Michelangelo

This print reproduces the upper middle section, and iconographic core, of Michelangelo’s Last Judgment. When assembled, the fifteen engravings in this volume form an oversized reproduction of the entire fresco on the end wall of the Sistine Chapel. Bound thus, with full margins, the plates were like illustrations in a modern coffee-table book. This allowed for the study of the composition’s powerful forms and tortuous postures, which were greatly admired at the time. Metz’s project was the last in a line going back two-and-a-half centuries to Giorgio Ghisi’s ten-plate engraving. The project, however, seems to have failed; the edition was apparently small, and just seven other complete sets are recorded in public collections