The End Times in and After Philippe Thomassin’s Last Judgment (1606)

Abstract

This article examines how Philippe Thomassin’s Last Judgment (1606) engraving traveled from Rome to the colonial Spanish Americas, acting as a powerful tool for reshaping both local belief systems and the physical environment. Moving beyond simple artistic analysis, I show how this image promoted a worldview that prioritized human salvation over the survival of the natural world. I connect this historical visual culture to the modern destruction of the Amazon rainforest by apocalypticist religious groups, who view clearing the forest not as an environmental disaster but as the preparation of a divine paradise. By linking early modern prints to today’s climate crisis, I argue that art history must address the active role of eschatological images such as Thomassin’s: they do not just depict the end of the world but can actively help bring it about. This case study reveals how colonial visuality continues to shape the precarious future of the Amazonian biosphere.