Object data
oil on panel
support: height 218 cm × width 190 cm
Bernard van Orley (circle of)
The Last Judgement and the Burial of the Dead
c. 1560 - c. 1570
Inscriptions
- inscription, bottom left, on the gravestone: M [?] ... D[?] ... XXIIII
Technical notes
The support, with a curver and arched top, is made up of eight vertically grained oak planks (22.8, 25.9, 23.8, 26.4, 26.6, 22.5, 26.8 and 13.9 cm). The thickness of the individual planks varies between 1.6 and 2.2 cm. The reverse of the panel shows sawmill marks and original bevelling along all edges. A possibly original dowel is present at the bottom of the join between the fifth and sixth plank (seen from the back and reading from left to right). In the upper part of the fifth plank there is an old mark scratched into the wood in the shape of a half triangle with a line leading from the hook upwards. The white ground layer is so thin that the grain of the wood is visible. A barbe and unpainted edges are present along the curved left and right sides of the arched top and along the lower edge. Some of the underdrawing is visible with the naked eye, especially in the light areas. The underdrawing was executed in a black, dry medium and consists mostly of contours. The lines were drawn fluently. Some thin parallel hatching was used to indicate shadow, as on the right thigh of the naked man in the left foreground, on the waist of the second standing man in the foreground, and on the back of the resurrected woman in the right foreground. The paint layers seem to have been built up from the background to the foreground, and most of the figures seem to have been reserved. Only minor changes were made to the composition during the painting process. The dead person below the angel on the left was prepared like a skeleton, with clearly discernable neck vertebrae, and without a nose bridge or eyes. The underdrawing for the standing man with raised arms in the foreground reveals that he was initially intended to be completely naked, and that the cloth around his waist and over his shoulder was an afterthought added during the painting stage. A skull in front of the shrouded corpse in the left foreground was replaced with a pile of dirt. The outlines of the blessed in the middle ground are more indicative than descriptive, but were largely followed in the painting stage. The underdrawing beneath the figures in black is hardly legible because of the crude application of layers of pigment containing carbon on top. It is clear, though, that the second standing figure with the hood was originally planned to be shorter (with his eyes where his mouth is now) and looking towards his colleague on his right. The painted surface is fairly smooth, with more impasto in the blues.
Scientific examination and reports
- infrared reflectography: L. Jansen / L.I. Hendrikman [2], RKD, 19 August 2003
- condition report: A. Krekeler, RMA, 22 June 2008
Condition
Fair. The panel has a convex warp. Some of the planks have insect damage. There is cupped paint throughout, which is stable, a lot of discoloured retouching, and large areas of overpaint.
Conservation
- E. Mösenbacher, 1984: paint layer consolidated
- S. Euler-Künsemüller, 2008: complete restoration; wooden battens attached to the reverse removed
Provenance
…; council chamber, Town Hall, Tholen;1 from the Municipality of Tholen, fl. 250, to the Nederlandsch Museum voor Geschiedenis en Kunst, The Hague (inv. no. 5756), 1882;2 transferred to the museum, 1885; on loan through the DRVK to the Town Hall, Tholen, since August 1957
Object number: SK-A-4265
Copyright: Public domain
The artist
Bernard van Orley (Brussels c. 1487/88 - Brussels 1542), circle of
Bernard van Orley was the eldest of two sons from the first marriage of the Brussels painter Valentin van Orley. Since the latter’s second marriage took place on 13 May 1490, both brothers must have been born before that date. Valentin was born in 1466, so he probably married around 1486. Bernard van Orley was therefore probably born in 1487 or 1488. Valentin van Orley was an illegitimate descendant of the noble D’Orley family of Luxembourg, and an inheritance from Valentin’s legitimate brother left Bernard a wealthy man.
Bernard van Orley was probably trained by his father, and is likely to have taken over the workshop when his father left for Antwerp in 1512. Bernard married Agnes Seghers before 24 December of that year. The assumption that he himself became a free master in Antwerp in 1517 is based on a misreading of the guild ledgers. On 23 May 1518, Bernard was appointed court painter to Margaret of Austria, a position he held until 1527, when he allowed a Lutheran to preach in his house. Among the attendants were several weavers and Van Orley’s only apprentice known by name, Aerdeken van den Bruggen. After this event Van Orley lost his position as court painter. In 1532 he was reappointed by Margaret’s successor Mary of Hungary, in whose service he remained until his death in 1542. In addition to work for Margaret of Austria, Van Orley received commissions from other nobles such as Mencia de Mendoza and Christian II of Denmark, as well as from secular and religious institutions like the almoners’ guild in Antwerp and the Brotherhood of the Holy Cross in Veurne.
The earliest documented payment is dated 1515 and relates to a series of six currently unidentified portraits for the court. His first signed and dated painting (1519) is also a portrait,3 and he continued to be a sought-after portraitist. The Altarpiece of Sts Thomas and Matthias is regarded as his first known major work,4 while other important commissions included the signed Virtue of Patience dated 1521,5 and The Last Judgement with the Seven Works of Charity of 1518-24.6 His last commission was the Calvary epitaph for Margaret of Austria, which he left unfinished on his death in 1542.7 A transcription of the inscription on his lost tombstone in the Brussels Church of St Géry gives 6 January 1541 as the date of his death (1542 in the new style).
According to Van Mander, Van Orley was the teacher of Pieter Coecke van Aelst and Michiel Coxie. His only documented pupil was Aerdeken van den Bruggen, about whom nothing further is known. Van Orley’s four sons may at some time have played a role in his workshop, but none of them has left an identified oeuvre. His son Hieronymus is documented as the keeper of some of Bernard’s designs on 20 October 1542, and some of his 17th and 18th-century descendants were painters.
In addition to his large attributed oeuvre of portraits and religious subjects, Bernard van Orley is well known as a designer of large series of tapestries, and monumental church windows. A relative large percentage of his oeuvre stands out for its unusual iconography, indicating unique commissions and less dependence on the open market. His paintings are characterised by the use of exuberant colouring, fantastic Renaissance architectural ornamentation, and sometimes a remarkable attention to human anatomy. As a result, Van Orley has enjoyed a persistent reputation as a so-called ‘Romanist’ and follower of Raphael. His extant works, however, show that he used models and motifs from various artistic centres in Italy as well as the Netherlands and Germany.
References
Van Mander 1604, fol. 211r; Wauters 1892; Friedländer VIII, 1930, pp. 78-135; Vollmer in Thieme/Becker XXVI, 1932, pp. 48-50; Le Maire 1943, pp. 167-90; ENP VIII, 1973, pp. 51-81; Farmer 1981, pp. 6-48; Miedema II, 1995, pp. 324-31; Ainsworth in Turner 1996, XXIII, pp. 524-28; Ainsworth 2006, pp. 99-112; Galand 2013, pp. 33-84
(L. Hendrikman)
Entry
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)
Literature
Van de Waal 1952, p. 261, note 1 (as Anonymous, c. 1560); Farmer 1981, p. xiii, no. 98 (as Anonymous, mid-16th century)
Collection catalogues
1903, p. 8, no. 56 (as Dutch, second half 16th century); 1934, p. 8, no. 56 (as Dutch, second half 16th century, after Van Orley); 1976, p. 426, no. A 4265
Citation
L. Hendrikman, 2010, 'circle of Bernard van Orley, The Last Judgement and the Burial of the Dead, c. 1560 - c. 1570', in J.P. Filedt Kok (ed.), Early Netherlandish Paintings, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.10177
(accessed 28 April 2024 06:27:06).Figures
fig. a Bernard van Orley, centre panel of a triptych with The Last Judgement and the Seven Works of Charity, c. 1518-25. Oil on panel, 248 x 218 cm (centre panel); 248 x 94 cm (wings). Antwerp, Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten (Photo Lukas - Art in Flanders)
fig. b Pieter Pourbus, The Last Judgement, 1551. Oil on panel, 228.5 x 181 cm. Bruges, Groeningemuseum (Photo Bridgeman Images)