This is a mural at the Chaldon Church, dating to the 1200’s. It is done a bit later than the Ladder of Virtues done in 1167, but depicts a similar scene. This painting has lots of action in it, with the ladder of salvation in the centre, dividing the painting into 4 quadrants- an upper right and left, and a lower right and left. The bottom half is hell, with the 7 deadly sins and the weighing of souls. The upper half depicts heaven, with angels. The demons are depicted much larger than the humans, and they are tourturing the people in hell. People, or souls, are trying to climb the ladder into heaven. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil is placed at the far bottom right of the picture. This picture is different than the Ladder of Virtues because it shows hell and heaven, and in the Ladder of Virtues it just shows the ladder going from earth to the sky. The ladder of Virtues doesn’t show hell, so the Ladder of Souls is a more scary piece of artwork. There were 2 demons shown in the Ladder of Virtues, but this Ladder of Souls shows a lot of violence going on in hell, and people are scrambling up the ladder to get away. The Ladder of Souls is more condemning that the Ladder of Virtues
