Last Judgement, The - London - Christies 2021 and 2023

Jan Bruegel the Elder (1568 - 1625)

Location:

London - Christies 2021 and 2023

Material:

Oil on copper

Dimensions:

27,4 x 36,5

Unverfehrt catalogue:

De Vrij catalogue:

More information

Lot Essay Christies: ' Jan Breughel the Elder executed his hellish landscapes and nocturnal fire scenes in the period circa 1594-1608. First conceived of during his stay in Rome of 1592-94, these compositions displayed a great debt to the fantastical imaginings of Hieronymus Bosch, but Breughel skilfully adapted the monsters of his predecessor, incorporating the sinuous elegance of late Mannerism as part of a new pictorial language that spoke to the taste for the wonderous and strange shared by the aristocratic and clerical elites of the day.
The wealth of detail in the present painting brings to life the gospel of Matthew, chapter 25, verses 31-46: 'When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another’. At upper centre, Jesus sits flanked by His Mother and John the Baptist, whilst angels carrying the symbols of the Passion encircle Him. To the left of the composition, the righteous are carried aloft by attending angels, whilst to the right the damned are tortured by the devil and his minions. Though clearly influenced by Pieter Bruegel’s version of the Last Judgement, drawn in 1558 and published as a print by Hieronymus Cock (fig. 1), this painting has a swirling, centrifugal energy that owes as much to later Italian explorations of the gospel, none less so than Michelangelo’s masterpiece. However, where the Italian approach to the subject was almost unfailingly executed on an enormous scale, the genius of Jan Breughel was to condense it down to tiny proportions without losing any of the verve or detail.
This Last Judgement can be compared to two other versions of the composition by Jan Breughel the Elder, the first signed and dated 1601 (Private collection), the second unsigned (Copenhagen, Statens Museum for Kunst, inv. no. KMSsp180; see K. Etrz and C. Nitze Etze, Jan Brueghel der Ältere (1568-1625): kritischer Katalog der Gemälde, Lingen, 2008, pp. 661-663, no. 322). Taking the signed Judgement into consideration, it is likely that the present painting dates to circa 1601-1605, as the mark of Pieter Staas on the reverse of the copper sheet dates to before 1606 (at which point the original mark began to be encircled). Interestingly, the tangled group at centre left in the present painting, of a winged devil dragging a body into a pile of people topped by the corpse of a woman, has been borrowed from an earlier work by Jan Breughel of 1600, Anaeas and Sibyl in the Underworld (Budapest Szépmuvészeti Múzeum, inv. no. 553).
Dr Klaus Ertz has confirmed the attribution to Jan Breughel the Elder in full after first hand inspection of the painting, his certificate accompanies this lot.'

Credit line:

History:

(Probably) Cardinal Benedetto Giustiniani (1554-1621), Palazzo Giustiniani, S. Luigi dei Francesi, Rome, where first recorded soon after 1601 in the ‘Guardarobba’ inventory, no. 91, as ‘uno del Giuditio’ (see Literature). (Probably) William Williams of Aberpergwm (1788-1855), Aberpergwm House, Vale of Neath, and by descent to his son, Morgan Stuart Williams (1846-1909), St. Donat's Castle, Vale of Glamorgan, Wales, and by descent to his son, Godfrey Herbert Joseph Williams (1875-1956), St. Donat's Castle, until its sale in 1922, where the pictures were recorded; Christie’s, London, 4 October 1946, lot 115, with ‘The Fall of the Damned’ and ‘The Deluge’ (three in the lot), where acquired for 190 gns. by the following, with Edward Speelman, London, from whom all three were acquired in December 1946 by the following, with P. de Boer, Amsterdam, from whom acquired, with ‘The Fall of the Damned’, in August 1947, for 2,500 florins by, Comte Jean de Bousies (1899-1966), Brussels; his sale, Galerie Charpentier, Paris, 24 March 1953, lot 7, sold with ‘The Fall of the Damned’. Private collection, Belgium, from which acquired by the present owner.. Auctioned at Christies in London on the Live Auction 20685 Old Masters on December 7, 2023- lot 5.

Literature:

(Possibly) ‘Entrata della Guadarobba‘ of Benedetto Giustiniani, 1600, Archivo di Stato di Roma, Fondo Giustiniani, busta 15, fol. 1054, nos. 91-92, ‘Doi quadri di rame di mano di Brugo con cornice di ebbano uno del Giuditio et uno del diluio’ (reproduced in Squarzina, op. cit., p. 781, nos. 91-2). (Possibly) Posthumous inventory of Benedetto Giustiniani, lnventarium bonorum bonae memoriae illustrissimi et reverendissimi Domini Cardinalis Benedicti lustiniani, 31 March 1621, Archivo di Stato di Roma, Notai del tribunale AC, fol. 1409r, no. 244, ‘Un giuditio in rame, quadro piccolo,figure piccole, con cornice d'ebbano’ (reproduced in Squarzina, op. cit., p. 790, no. 244). K. Ertz, Jan Brueghel der Ältere (1568-1625), die Gemälde: mit kritischem Oeuvrekatalog, Cologne, 1979, pp. 77, 119, 125-6, no. 81, fig. 129. (Possibly) S. D. Squarzina, ‘The collections of Cardinal Benedetto Giustiniani. Part I’, The Burlington Magazine, CXXXIX, no. 1136, November 1997, pp. 781 and 790, nos. 91-2 and 244. K. Ertz and C. Nitze-Ertz, Jan Brueghel der Ältere (1568-1625): Kritischer Katalog der Gemälde, II, Lingen, 2008, pp. 661-3, no. 322, illlustrated.

Source:

Website 'christies.com'

« Previous