Artist: Barend Or Barent Van Orley, Bernaert Van Orley Or Barend Van Brussel
Date: 1570
Size: 218 x 190 cm
Technique: Oil On Panel
The composition of this monumental panel with the Last Judgement is divided horizontally into two sections. At top centre Christ sits on a rainbow with his feet resting on the orb of the world, surrounded by angels. The bottom half shows the resurrected blessed on the left, and the damned being sent to hell on the right.8 The centre foreground is occupied by five men in black burying a coffin. They are the only figures in contemporary dress and have distinctive portrait-like features, which suggests that they commissioned the painting. Another man appears to be a priest blessing the deceased in the coffin. He wears a greyish white garment and holds a holy water sprinkler. The man behind him is holding a crucifix. Their occupation of burying the dead is the last of the seven works of charity (Tobias 1:17-19).9 No documents or early accounts concerning the panel have survived, and the painting has attracted hardly any scholarly attention. The panel was acquired in 1882 by the Nederlandsch Museum voor Geschiedenis en Kunst in The Hague from the town hall of Tholen, where it hung in the council chamber. The painting may well have been commissioned for that late 15th-century town hall, as the Last Judgement was one of the commonest subjects shown in town halls, which also housed the municipal court.10 The composition and iconography of the panel must have been inspired directly by the centre panel of the monumental triptych with The Last Judgement and the Seven Works of Charity, which Bernard van Orley painted between c. 1518 and 1525 for the almoners’ guild in Antwerp Cathedral (fig. a). The patrons may have wished for a painting just like the one in neighbouring Antwerp. The small port town of Tholen in Zeeland was only 50 kilometres downstream from Antwerp along the river Scheldt, as can be seen in Jacob van Deventer’s Zelandicarum insularum of c. 1545 and later editions.11 The panel in Tholen may also have had wings like the altarpiece by Van Orley. The shape of the panel is an indication of this, but not absolute proof. The so-called Last Judgement of Zierikzee is rectangular but has wings,12 whereas Provoost’s Last Judgement has an arched top but was nevertheless conceived as a single panel.13 Not only is its size and composition similar to Van Orley’s invention, but one part was copied directly. The figure group in the left foreground, consisting of the naked man on the gravestone and the dead man being resurrected by an angel, is almost identical, in size as well, to that in the Antwerp composition. The angel alone has been shifted slightly to the left and is dressed differently. The underdrawing, partly visible with the naked eye, reveals that the initial design was even closer to the Antwerp version, since the corpse was prepared as a skeleton. The style and type of underdrawing, for example in the figures in the middleground, matches the sketchy parts of the Antwerp Last Judgement with the Seven Works of Charity, but is nowhere near as elaborate.14 However, there are no signs of tracing or pouncing that would indicate that the painter had direct access to models from Van Orley’s workshop. Furthermore, the person climbing out of the grave still wearing a shroud is remarkably similar in conception and position to the one in the 1551 Last Judgement by Pieter Pourbus in Bruges (fig. b). The quality of the painting is very uneven. The naked men in the foreground and the angels on the left and right betray a gifted painter, whereas some other figures, remarkably enough including the presumed patrons, are of greatly inferior quality. The decoration on the grave slab was very thinly applied and does not seem to have any meaning. Only the characters ‘XXIIII’ are legible. They are preceded by what looks like a ‘D’ and an ‘M’ on the long side. Together they would form the number MDXXIIII (1524). This could be the date of the painting, since Van Orley’s Last Judgement was finished around that year. The fragmentary nature of the inscription and the fact that the artist also followed parts of Pourbus’s 1551 painting, however, makes it less likely that this intriguing number is the date of execution. The contemporary dress worn by the men burying the coffin can only give a general indication of the date of the painting. The jerkin with puffed sleeves could be dated 1540 and the type of shoes from around 1550. The iconography of the painting is definitely Catholic, and must therefore predate Tholen’s conversion to Protestantism in 1578.15 In view of the more prominent influence of Bernard van Orley, and the terminus post quem provided by Pourbus’s Last Judgement of 1551, the painting can be ascribed to the circle of Bernard van Orley and dated between 1560 and 1570. (L. Hendrikman/J.P. Filedt Kok)
Artist |
Barend Or Barent Van Orley, Bernaert Van Orley Or Barend Van Brussel |
|---|---|
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