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A "Doom painting" or "Doom" is a traditional English term for a wall-painting of the Last Judgement in a medieval church. This is the moment in Christian eschatology when Christ judges souls to send them to either Heaven or Hell.[1]
"Doom painting" typically refers to large-scale depictions of the Last Judgement on the western wall of churches, visible to congregants as they left, rather than to representations 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. Most dooms in English churches were destroyed by government authority during the English 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.