Lignod Chapel – The Last Judgement

Johann Joseph Franz Curta (1827-1881)

Born in Gressoney-Saint-Jean into a family with artistic traditions, he is the author of several of the many religious images painted from the 16th to the 19th century on sacred buildings and private dwellings throughout the territory of Ayas. Frescoes by Curta can be found on the façade of the Chapels of Mandrou and Mascognaz, on the portal of the Chapel of Saint-Jacques-des-Allemands, as well as the fresco of the Last Judgement on the façade of the Chapel of Lignod.

Curta’s compositions appear to draw on illustrious models, from Correggio to Michelangelo, whose works the artist came to know during his studies at the drawing school in Varallo and later at the Albertina Academy in Turin. In his depictions of the Holy Family, he imitates the compositional structure of Correggio’s Madonna and Child, known as the Zingarella (held at the National Museum of Naples), while in the Last Judgement at Antagnod, he draws on the Sistine Chapel for the figures of the judging Christ and the Virgin at his side.