The Baptistry is crowned by a magnificent mosaic ceiling. The earliest mosaics, works of art of many unknown Venetian craftsmen (including probably Cimabue), date from 1225. The covering of the ceiling started under the direction of the Franciscan friar Jacopo Torriti and was probably not completed until the fourteenth century.This mosaic cycle depicts in the three sections above the high altar, the Last Judgment with a gigantic, majestic Christ and the Angels of Judgment at each side by Coppo di Marcovaldo, the rewards of the saved leaving their tomb in joy (at Christ's right hand), and the punishments of the damned (at Christ's left hand). This last part is particularly famous: evil doers are burnt by fire, roasted on spits, crushed with stones, bit by snakes, gnawed and chewed by hideous beasts. These scenes remind us of later works showing us in grisly detail the horrors of hell, such as The Last Judgment or the panel Hell (from the triptych The Garden of Earthly Delights), both by the Flemish painter Hieronymus Bosch.
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