|
The Last Judgement
|
|
|
|
While sin and folly occupy a prominent place in Bosch's art, their significance
can be fully appreciated only within the context of a larger medieval theme, the
Last Judgment. The Day of Judgment marks the final act of the long, turbulent
history of mankind which began with the Fall of Adam and Eve and their expulsion
from Eden. It is the day when the dead shall rise from their graves and Christ
shall come a second time to judge all men, rewarding each according to his
merits. As Christ himself foretold (Matthew 25:34, 41), the elect will enjoy the
eternal bliss prepared for them »from the foundation of the world«, while the
damned will be condemned to the »everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and
hisangels«. Time will cease and eternity begin.
The preparation for this Final Day was one of the chief concerns of the medieval
Church. It taught the faithful what conduct would enable them to be numbered
among the blessed; it warned backsliders and evildoers of the awful punishment
which awaited them if they failed to reform. The majority opinion is represented
by Thomas a Kempis who told the readers of the »lmitation of Christ«, »it is
good that, if the love of God does not restrain you from sin, the fear of Hell
at least should restrain you«. Thus, the unending torments of the damned were
described, in lurid details, in countless books and sermons, while meditations
on the Last Judgment and Hell played an important part in various spiritual
exercises, including those of the »Devotio Modema«.
The terrors of the Final Reckoning were intensified by a general sense of its
imminence. There had always been prophets who insisted that the world was
nearing its end, but the feeling of impending doom grew particularly acute in
the late fifteenth century. For Sebastian Brant, the sins of mankind had
multiplied to such an extent that the Last Judgment must surely be close at
hand. Other writers represented the world on the threshold of the final age, in
which the prophecies described in the Revelation of St John would soon come to
pass. Plagues, floods and other natural disasters were regarded as
manifestations of the wrath of God and current political events were searched
anxiously for signs of the Last Emperor and of Antichrist.
In 1499, a German astrologer confidently asserted that the world would be
destroyed by a second Deluge on 25 February 1524. In 1515, Albrecht Durer made a
watercolour recording his famous dream in which he saw the final catastrophe
brought about by huge columns of water crashing to the earth; somewhat earlier,
Leonardo da Vinci made drawings of whole cities swept away by raging floods
whose dynamic structure was observed with scientific detachment.
Nowhere, however, was this chronic anxiety of the age given
more vivid expression than in Bosch's imposing »Last
Judgment« triptych in Vienna,
executed probably during his middle period. The largest of
his surviving works, the »Last Judgment« is prefaced on the
outer wings by the figures of St James the Greater and St Bavo, painted in grisaille (left and right). Despite the
gloomy and threatening landscape through which St James
moves, neither this panel nor its companion prepares us for
the apocalyptic scenes which unfold within. Here, across the
three inner panels, appear the First and Last Things,
beginning with the Fall of Man on the left wing.
|

Triptych of Last Judgement
Akademie der Bildenden Kunste, Vienna |
|
|
This, the largest of Bosch's paintings (163.7 x 127
cm/ 66 x 50 in), is also one of the most revealing and
accomplished. The familiar story is clear. Every one of his
contemporaries, poor, trusting, illiterate peasants as well
as educated burghers, would have grasped the significance of
almost all the details and believed the basic message
implicitly. But some of the images must have been
frighteningly new and distressing, if not actually inducing
despair. Other painters had treated the same subject
powerfully, but no one, before or since, has had the
creative intensity and ability to actualize the dreaded
unknown in such fantastic images. This is particularly true
in the devils, demons, evil spirits and unnerving monsters
that Bosch created to inhabit the nether world. His
contemporaries, if they thought he saw (and they would have
believed it possible) and accurately represented the
monsters and denizens, and the hellish regions they
inhabited, must have been convinced that hell was a place to
avoid at all costs. The deadly sins are all depicted a
number of times and erotic symbolism abounds.
|
|
|
 Triptych of Last Judgement.
St James the Greater (left outer wing)
Grisaille on panel, 167 x 60 cm
Akademie der Bildenden Kunste, Vienna |
 Triptych of Last Judgement.
St Bavo (right outer wing)
Grisaille on panel, 167 x 60 cm
Akademie der Bildenden Künste, Vienna |
|
|
Depicted as a pilgrim on the Road
of Life, St James the Greater is carrying the
symbols associated with him: the staff, the
large-brimmed hat and, on it, the scallop shell, his
special identification. St James, brother of St
John. was the first of the Apostles to be martyred
(AD 44). According to legend, after his martyrdom
his body was brought from Jerusalem to Spain, where
a shrine set up at Santiago de Compostella became
one of the great attractions for Christian pilgrims
in the later Middle Ages. The landscape in the
background carries details of significant reference:
on the top left reminding the faithful of death as
punishment in life; in the middle left , the long
and difficult journey of the blind, hall and lame;
and on the right the warning of robbers and
murderers on the path through life. This panel, and
that of St Bavo (opposite), are painted in
grisaille, a method of using grey monochrome that
often gives the impression of sculpture. The closed
triptych would merge with the surrounding sculpture,
giving no indication of the colourful and
frightening images inside.
|
Bavo was born in Brabant,
probably in the late 6th century, and died in 653.
He was a rich landowner, made a good marriage,
fathered a daughter but led a disorderly life until
the early death of his wife induced a dramatic
change. He gave away all his possessions to the
poor, put himself under the direction of Bishop (and
Saint) Amand of Maastricht and devoted the rest of
his life to good works, becoming known as the
Protector of Flanders. He became a greatly revered
saint in the northern Netherlands and a number of
churches, including the Groote Kik - the most
impressive church in Haarlem — are dedicated to him.
In Bosch's grisaille panel Bavo is depicted in
elegant dress carrying a hawk on one hand and a
purse in the other, representing pleasure and good
works respectively, as he gives to the poor, young
and old. The significance of the mummified foot and
the bowl balanced on the child's head has not been
determined.
|
|
|
|

Triptych of Last Judgement. Paradise (left wing -
detail)
Akademie der Bildenden Kunste, Vienna
|
|
|
Bosch has set the scene of the Fall in a rich
landscape and shows the progress of the action from the
lower to the upper levels. At the base the creation of Eve
is treated somewhat similarly in design to Michelangelo's
composition in the Sistine Chapel, which was painted at
about the same time, although the feeling in each work is
very different. Bosch, in the waning of the Middle Ages in
northern Europe, had a strong sense of the actuality of hell
fire, while Michelangelo, in the High Italian Renaissance,
placed strong emphasis on the human values in the story. On
the second level we see the Temptation: Eve holds out the
apple from the Tree of Knowledge to Adam, while a singularly
unserpent-like creature, female it may be noted, holds out
another. Note too, the ubiquitous owl of evil on a branch to
the left. The third level shows the couple driven from the
Garden of Eden by a sword-wielding angel. Above the
landscape is empty. The fourth level, the sky, shows God
driving the rebel angels out of Paradise, in the process of
which they are transformed from humans to insect monsters.
|
|
|

Triptych of Last Judgement. Last Judgement (central panel
- detail)
Akademie der Bildenden Kunste, Vienna
|
|
|
|

Triptych of Last Judgement. Last Judgement.
Frying Bodies (central panel
- detail)
Akademie der Bildenden Kunste, Vienna
|
|
|
In this panel of the painting Bosch has created some
of his most powerful images. There appears to be no limit to
his visual imagination nor any restraint in depicting it.
The metamorphosis of one thing into another is a constant
device, as can be seen in this and the following
illustrations taken from this panel. In the centre of this
detail an old woman with lizard-like feet is frying human
remains, while two eggs (symbols of sexual creativity) are
waiting to go in the frying pan. Behind, another monstrous
hag is turning a body on a spit and another body can be seen
already prepared. On the right a beetle-like creature is
dismembering another figure for the frying pan. This is
truly hell's kitchen. Another figure in the foreground,
repenting too late, has his hands clasped in prayer while a
monster is spitting him for the knife. There also seems to
be a mouse metamorphosing into a porcupine — or vice versa.
|
|