Antwerpener Meister nach Hans Rottenhammer (1... Lot n° 2018

Antwerp School after hans Rottenhammer (1564-1625) The Last Judgment Oil on copper. 75 x 56 cm. The trumpets of the Last Judgment sound in this work, and the resurrection of the dead has begun. Far away in the landscape one can just make out the archangel Michael, who separates the resurrected souls into the redeemed and the damned. On the right side, the gate to a fiery hell has opened. Devils stream forth to seize the sinners. Before the flaming sword of an angel, numerous damned plunge down into hell. On the left, an angel receives the redeemed who ascend to heaven. The prophets, apostles and saints are seated there on banks of clouds: Jonah with the whale, David with the harp, Andrew with the cross, Mary Magdalene with the ointment jar, Catherine with the wheel. Christ appears with Mary and John the Baptist in glory (known as a deesis motif). The circle of angelic choirs is completed at the top by angels with the instruments of Christ's Passion. The Alte Pinakothek in Munich houses a version of this composition by Rottenhammer dated 1598 (oil on copper, 68 x 46 cm, signed: "Gio. Rottenhammer 1598 Venetia," inv. 45; exhibition catalogue Hans Rottenhammer. Begehrt - vergessen - neu entdeckt, edited by Heiner Borggrefe et. al., exhibition catalogue Weserrenaissance Museum Schloß Brake Lemgo and National Gallery Prague, Munich 2008, cat. 26, pp. 119-121). The signature notes that the painting was created in Venice, where the Munich-born painter had settled before moving to Augsburg in 1606. A workshop replica can be found in the Hessisches Landesmuseum in Darmstadt (oil on copper, 67.5 x 46.5 cm, inv. no. GK 1139; provenance: Cologne, Lempertz, May 17-19, 1962, lot 195; Heidrun Ludwig: Malerei von ca. 1550 bis 1750 im Hessischen Landesmuseum Darmstadt, vol. 2, Regensburg 2022, pp. 572-576). The versions in Munich and Darmstadt are almost entirely identical, with the Darmstadt painting differing only in minor details and in the use of less luminous pigments. One of the two versions was once housed in Antwerp in 1628 in the famous collection of Cornelis van der Geest. Guillaum van Haecht integrated it into his painting of an art gallery dated to that year with the visit of Archdukes Albrecht and Isabella (Rubenshuis, Antwerp). Van Haecht prominently places Rottenhammer's work in the right foreground of his painting, which also contains numerous portraits of the artistic celebrities of the city of Scheldt. The prominence of Rottenhammer's composition in Antwerp is already indicated by earlier paintings by Jan Brueghel the Elder. Brueghel was active in Antwerp at the time. He had previously worked with Hans Rottenhammer during his stay in Italy in the 1590s. Jan Brueghel adapted the figures from Rottenhammer's composition into a wide-format miniature of the "Last Judgment," of which three versions dating from 1601, 1602, and 1607 are known (Thomas Fusenig: Rottenhammer's Influence on Painting, in: exhibition catalogue Lemgo/Prague 2008-2009, pp. 79-85, fig. 131, with further literature). The Musée Atger in Montpellier preserves a carefully drawn copy of Rottenhammer's composition, but it is not by Rottenhammer himself and omits minor details (e.g., some heads of figures in the foreground). Therefore, the drawing could not have served as a model for the painting offered for sale here (fig. AK Lemgo/Prague 2008-2009, fig. 171). The present work appears to be a copy of one of the paintings in either Munich or Darmstadt. Another copy after Rottenhammer's "Last Judgment", which was on the art market in Madrid in 2018 (oil on copper, 68 x 49 cm), reiterates the composition with lighter colours and a much lower level of detail. It is likely to have been painted in the second third of the 17th century. Recently a copy of the Rottenhammer composition in the Sternberg Collection in Častolovice (oil on copper, 68 x 47 cm), also of high quality, was published with a reference to Hendrick van Balen (Eliška Zlatohlávková, Alcune osservazione sul recente rinvenimento di un quadro reappresentante il Giudizio universale alla maniera di Hans Rottenhammer, in: Intrecci d'arte, vol. 10, 2021, S. 87-98). Judging by the artistic technique used, the execution of this "Last Judgment" probably took place as a direct copy after one of Rottenhammer's two versions painted in his own hand in the Antwerp workshop of Hendrick van Balen the Elder (1575-1632). Van Balen employed numerous collaborators, most of whom are known only by name, and can be considered the most important artist inspired by Rottenhammer in the Netherlands. The copy must have been created soon after the Last Judgement's arrival in Antwerp, where Rottenhammer's work apparently attracted considerable attention in the collection of Cornelis van der Geest. We would like to thank Dr Thomas Fusenig for this catalogue entry.