The use of images as historical sources has been reason for debate for some decades. The current article aims to defend its importance since they own diverse origin from the written sources, the visual sources allow us to realize other ways of manifestation of the social life, as well new social actors. The text concentrates the analysis in visual repesentations of the topic of the Last Judgement performed in the Middle Age, seeking a better understanding not only of the religiousness, but also own history of the societies that created these images. Forms of understanding the paintings about the Final Judgement in the medieval period will be discussed in this article, as well the functions expected for this kind of image. The analysis will be found particularly in the Italian examples painted between XII and XIV centuries.
Final Judgement; Function of the images; Medieval art
