Büttner 2020
“Das >>Wiener Weltgericht<< des Hieronymus Bosch: Status quaestionis” (Nils Büttner) 2020
[in: Julia M. Nauhaus (ed.), Hieronymus Bosch’s Last Judgement Triptych in the 1500s – Publication of the proceedings of the international conference held from 21 – 23 November 2019 in the Paintings Gallery of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. Gemäldegalerie der Akademie der bildenden Künste, Vienna, 2020, pp. 65-89]
In this contribution Büttner offers an overview of the literature on Bosch’s Last Judgement triptych in Vienna (including an appendix which aims at a complete bibliography concerning the painting). Since Unverfehrt (1980) considered the triptych a work belonging to the narrow nucleus of the Bosch oeuvre, the discussion dealing with authenticity has largely become silent. Fischer, Trnek, and the BRCP think the work was partially produced by Bosch’s own hand, partially by his workshop.
Furthermore, Büttner focuses on the pedigree (which we can follow from 1659 on), on the issue of whether Philip the Fair commissioned the triptych in 1504 (very questionable), on Hippolyte de Berthoz as potential commissioner (but who then is the donor figure that can only be seen in the underdrawing of the central panel?), on the underdrawings that have become accessible thanks to technical research (raising new questions instead of providing answers), on the dating (according to dendrochronology ‘1488-1494’, but taking into account the escutcheons on the closed wings which were added later, ‘after 1500’), on the Lucas Cranach copy, and on the iconography (recent literature has pointed out the major influence of late medieval devotional literature).
[explicit 19 April 2023]
