Why This Symbol is One of the Most Compelling in Art

A trove of souls, justice and star signs

The Last Judgment triptych (between c.1466 and c.1473) by Hans Memling. Oil on panel. 223.5 × 306 cm. National Museum, Gdańsk, Poland. Image source Wikimedia Commons

Take a moment to admire this extraordinary painting, in which the winged Archangel Michael appears at the centre of a landscape, bearing a pair of weighing scales. Made by the Netherlandish artist Hans Memling in about 1470, the altarpiece gives us a full panorama of the ultimate arbitration, turning the weighing of souls into a riot of both piety and wretchedness.

It is surely one of the most expressive and visually electrifying paintings of its kind.

Symmetrically positioned — acting as Christ’s assistant — Michael stands tall, gleaming in golden armour in his role as the leader of God’s army, his scales measuring good against bad.

Archangel Michael weighing the souls of the dead. Detail of ‘The Last Judgment’ triptych (between c.1466 and c.1473) by Hans Memling. Oil on panel. 223.5 × 306 cm. National Museum, Gdańsk, Poland. Image source Wikimedia Commons

Michael is not a giant; rather it was an artistic tradition to illustrate the souls in the form of diminutive human figures. Look closely and you can see the reflection of a landscape in his amour breastplate, a hint that the whole world will one day pass through his weighing pans.

This painting gives us just one example of the enormous range of scales in art. Across different cultures and…