A Triptych with the Last Judgment (central panel), the Annunciation and the Nativity with donors (inner wings), Saint Cornelius and Saint Hubertus (outer wings),
oil on panel, 96 x 53.2 cm (central panel), 96 x 23.6 cm (wings), 102 x 121 cm (overall), framed

Provenance:
Schloss Plankenwarth, Austria;
sale, Leo Schidlof’s Kunstauktionshaus, Vienna, 5 November 1923, lot 209 (as Netherlandish circa 1525);
where bought by the grandfather of the present owners (46.000.000 crowns)

Exhibited:
Enschede, Rijksmuseum Twenthe, on loan, 2012–2021

Literature:
L. Décombe, Een Raadselachtig Oordeel, diss. ms., 2006

The present triptych, which has remained in the same family for almost a century, is striking for the richness of its scenes executed in a variety of painterly styles. These manners vary from archaic fifteenth century figures of Christ and the Virgin and Saint John in the upper part of the central panel to the Boschian characteristics in the condemned souls below and the Antwerp Mannerist and Renaissance features in the inner and outer wings respectively.

This mixture of scenes and styles has puzzled experts both past and present resulting in diverse suggestions for both the school and precise identification of its master, recorded in correspondence between the late owner and numerous experts dating from the 1920s and 30s. They vary from ‘probably Brussels circa 1525’ as suggested by Ludwig Baldass and confirmed in a certificate of 11 December 1923 to ‘not Netherlandish, possibly Lower Rhine, circa 1520’ as enhanced by Max J. Friedländer, ‘Bruges, circa 1520 and South Germany’ as formulated by Juliana Daniels and ‘Brabant, probably Valley of the Meuse’ as observed by G. J. Hoogewerff. Other ‘characteristics pointing to Aertgen van Leyden’ where observed by J. Q. van Regteren Altena. The correspondence is available to the buyer (in photocopy).

Following an extensive restoration carried out by Caroline van der Elst in 2011/12 coinciding with technical research including infrared reflectography and dendrochronology of the oak support, the triptych is now believed to have been painted in a workshop, perhaps located in the lower Rhine area or in the east part of the Netherlands, and to have been executed in various stages by a master and his assistants, with the outer wings painted later by a different hand. Here appear Saint Cornelius and Hubertus, who were particularly venerated in the valley of the Meuse, the Ardennes and in Westphalia.

IRR imaging revealed notably extensive underdrawing throughout the triptych in different media and styles and confirmed the execution by different hands. While that in the figures of Christ and the Virgin and Saint John in the central panel are in black ink in a free and loose style, a lesser, meticulous hand in another medium is seen in the area of the Apostles, whereas in the scenes below and in the wings an underdrawing in thick lines and in a loose style can be observed (see fig 1).

Fritz Koreny observed that the underdrawing in the lower part of the central panel shows stylistic similarities to that seen in drawings by Cornelis Kunst. He also drew attention to the woodcut of the Temptation of Saint Anthony by Master J. Kock, from which the motif of Saint Anthony carried away by devils in the area appears to have been derived (see fig. 2).

Dendrochronological analysis of the oak support by Peter Klein revealed that all four boards – two for the central panel and another two for the wings – were made of the same tree with the youngest heartwood ring dating from 1469, allowing an earliest possible date of execution of 1486. Indeed, the central panel and the wings appear to date from circa 1500/20, while the outer wings probably date from circa 1530/40. IRR also revealed major changes to the composition, such as the replacement of the originally intended painted arches in the central panel and the wings by azurite blue skies and colonnades and the addition of the ox and the donkey instead of putti in the Adoration scene as much as an enrichment of the costumes of the donors.

Although the original location of the present triptych is unknown today, it must have been intended for the private chapel of the donor family depicted in the wings. Thus they were reminded of the Christian notion that at the end of time Christ would appear again on earth to judge over the living and the dead, such as accounted in Matthew, XXV: 31-46. As pointed out by Craig Harbison (see C. Harbison, The Last Judgement in Sixteenth Century Northern Europe, 1976, p. 9), the Last Judgment counts as the last theological event through which the intended heavenly order would come into place. In the present triptych indeed the Last Judgment in the central panel is depicted as this last event with the Nativity and the Adoration marking the beginning of Christian salvation. The composition of the Last Judgement follows the archaic Medieval scheme with Christ in glory flanked by the Virgin and Saint John as intercessors, such as seen in thirteenth and fourteenth century sculpted tympanums of cathedrals such as Bourges and as also represented in engravings by Hans Wächtlin, Albrecht Dürer and Erhard Schön of 1508, 1510 and 1518 respectively (see op. cit. C. Harbison, 1976, figs. 12, 13 and 18). In the centre are the Apostles with the twenty four elders, as described in the Book of Revelation on clouds beyond. Below are the blessed and the damned, the latter encircled by devils and a burning fortification such as also seen in Hieronymus Bosch’s Last Judgment of circa 1500, now in the Groeningemuseum, Bruges. The replacement of the former arches by a blue sky follows the idea that the Last Judgment visualizes the eternal organisation of the cosmos. The emphatically verticality of the central scene underlines that same idea.

Schloss Plankenwarth, from where the triptych was sold in 1923, is situated in Sankt Oswald near Graz in Steiermark. After a period of decline, it was acquired by Ignaz von Scarpatetti, who embarked in a renovation project and probably also acquired the present triptych. For the history of Schloss Plankenwarth please see Mathilde Uhlirz’s publication Schloss Plankenwarth und seine Besitzer (Graz 1916).

Please see the print catalogue for support illustrations.