About the Artwork
In this depiction of the final and eternal judgment of all mankind by God, Christ reigns in glory in the heavens, surrounded by angels and saints. At the lower left, a line of people stands at the gates of heaven, hoping for admission by Saint Peter. At the lower right, those unfortunates who have already been found unworthy are subjected to a variety of torments, some inflicted by beasts of the artist’s invention. The scene contains droll details — for example, one wide-eyed monster has seized the leg of a hapless human and pulls eagerly — that suggest that Jan Provost brought a certain humor to this richly detailed, colorful, and dramatic composition. Provost had a prolific and multifaceted career not only as a painter but also as a cartographer, engineer, and architect. He simultaneously maintained two painting workshops in the Low Countries, one in Bruges and one in the powerful economic center of Antwerp, where he met Albrecht Dürer.
The Last Judgment
c. 1525
Jan Provost
ca. 1465 - 1529 and 1532
Netherlandish
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Oil on oak panel
Unframed: 22 3/4 × 23 7/8 inches (57.8 × 60.6 cm) Framed: 29 5/8 × 30 9/16 × 3 inches (75.3 × 77.6 × 7.6 cm)
Paintings
European Painting
Gift of James E. Scripps
89.35
Public Domain
Markings
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Provenance
King Louis Philippe I (France);C.S. Nieuwenhuys (Brussels, Belgium);
1883, John Nieuwenhuys (Brussels, Belgium);
May 4, 1883, sold by (Englebert & Henri Le Roy, Brussels, Belgium) auction J. Nieuwenhuys, lot 1 [as Jérome Van Aeken e. g. Hieronymus Bosch];
1883-1887, purchased and sold by (Bourgeois Frères, Paris, France) [purchased for Belgian frs 6,000];
November 22, 1887, purchased by James E. Scripps (Detroit, Michigan, USA);
1888-present, git to the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)
For more information on provenance, please visit:
Provenance pageExhibition History
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The exhibition history of a number of objects in our collection only begins after their acquisition by the museum, and may reflect an incomplete record.
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Catalogue of the Scripps Collection. Detroit, 1889, no. 15 [as Jerome Bos or Bosche].
"The Scripps Old Masters." The Collector 2, no. 13 (May 1, 1891): pp. 149-152; p. 149 [as by Jerome Bosche].
Scripps, James E. Handbook of the Paintings Ancient and Modern Belonging to the Detroit Museum of Art. Detroit, 1895, pp. 12-13.
Detroit Museum of Art Handbook of Paintings by the Old Masters. Detroit, 1910, p. 21, no. 16.
Bredius, A. Bulletin of the DMA 8, no. 4 (October 1914): p. 57 (ill.) [as Engelbrechtsen].
Burroughs, C. Catalogue of Paintings, Sculpture and Contemporary Arts and Crafts. Detroit, 1920, p. 51, no. 40 [as Cornelis Engelbrechtsz].
Conway, M. The Van Eycks and Their Followers. London, 1921, pp. 451-452.
Friedländer, M. J. Von Eyck bis Bruegel, 2nd ed. Berlin, 1921, pp. 119-120, 197.
Winkler, F. Die Altniederländische Malerei. 1924, p. 142 (ill.).
Heil, W. Catalogue of Paintings in the Permanent Collection of the Detroit Institute of Arts. Detroit, 1930, cat. 172 (ill.).
Bulletin of the DIA 13, no. 4 (1932): p. 43.
Friedländer, M. J. Die Altniederländische Malerei, vol. 9. Berlin, 1934, p. 148, no. 157.
Richardson, E.P. Flemish Painting of the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries. Detroit, 1936, (fig. 7) [as Jan Provoost].
Heil, W. Detroit Institute of Arts Catalogue of Paintings and Sculpture Illustrated. Detroit, 1937, p. 87.
Richardson, E.P., ed. Detroit Institute of Arts Catalogue of Paintings. Detroit, 1944, p. 105, no. 172.
Holbein and his Contemporaries. Exh. cat., John Herron Institute. Indianapolis, 1950, cat. 63 (ill.).
Flight: Fantasy, Fact, Faith. Exh. cat., Dayton Art Institute. Dayton, 1953, cat. 95.
Cummings, Frederick J., and Charles H. Elam. Detroit Institute of Arts Illustrated Handbook. Detroit, 1971, p. 86.
Friedländer, M.J. Early Netherlandish Painting, vol. 9, part 2. Leiden and Brussels, 1973, pp. 87, 114, no. 157, (pl. 171).
Harbison, C. The Last Judgment in Sixteenth Century Northern Europe: A Study of the Relation Between Art and the Reformation. New York and London, 1976, p. 4, cat. 74.
Corwin, N.A. "The Fire Landscape: Its Sources and Its Development from Bosch through Jan Brueghel I, with Special Emphasis on the Mid-Sixteenth Century Bosch 'Revival.'" Ph.D. diss., University of Washington, Seattle, 1976, pp. 206-207, no. 16, (pl. 41).
Cummings, Frederick J., ed. Selected Works from the Detroit Institute of Arts. Detroit, 1979, pp. 69, 95, no. 66 (ill.).
Unverfehrt, Gerd. Hieronymus Bosch: die Rezeption seiner Kunst im fruehen 16. Jh. Berlin, 1980, pp. 216-217, 274 (ill.), 208.
Bauman, G.C., and W. Liedtke. Flemish Paintings in America. Antwerp, 1992, p. 356, no. 373 (ill.).
Spronk, R. "Tracing the Making of Jan Provoost's Last Judgment through Technical Examinations and Digital Imaging." Bulletin of the DIA 72, no. 1/2 (1998): pp. 66-79 (ill.).
Die Sammlungen der Hamburger Kunsthalle. Vol. 2, Die Niederländischen Gemälde 1500-1800. Hamburg, 2001, pp. 215-216, cited under inv. 323.
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Credit Line for Reproduction
Jan Provost, The Last Judgment, c. 1525, oil on oak panel. Detroit Institute of Arts, Gift of James E. Scripps, 89.35.
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