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A drawing depicting the Last Judgement. Jesus and Saints are arranged across the top. Earthly figures below on earth are praying, either ascending to Heaven or being tortured by Devils.
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  • A drawing depicting the Last Judgement. Jesus and Saints are arranged across the top. Earthly figures below on earth are praying, either ascending to Heaven or being tortured by Devils.

Pieter Jansz. Pourbus

Study for The Last Judgment

Maker

Pieter Jansz. Pourbus (Flemish, 1523/24-1584)

Title

Study for The Last Judgment

Year

ca. 1550-1551

Medium

  • pen and ink,
  • brush and wash,
  • and white lead heightening over black chalk on toned laid paper

Materials/Techniques

Techniques

  • pen and ink,
  • brush and wash,
  • and white lead heightening over black chalk on toned laid paper

Materials

white heightening, wash technique

Supports

  • paper laid down on paper

Dimensions

36.4 x 28.6 cm (14 5/16 x 11 1/4 inches)

Credit / Object Number

Credit

Bequest of John M. Crawford, Jr.

Object Number

1989.110.2

Type

  • Drawings and Watercolors

Exhibition History

Drawing Closer
Four Hundred Years of Drawing from the RISD Museum
Mar 12, 2022 – Sep 04, 2022

Label copy

This crowded composition visualizes the end times as imagined in Christian belief, when Jesus, seated here at the upper center, will return to judge the living and the dead. Filled with references to Michelangelo’s Last Judgment in the Sistine Chapel, which was painted just a decade earlier, this drawing was a final stage in the preparation of a painted panel commissioned by the judges of the city of Bruges. Carefully built up with layers of ink, wash, and chalk, it was produced as a model for patrons to review as they considered what the final painted version should look like.

Design and Description
Renaissance and Baroque Drawings
Jan 27, 2006 – Apr 09, 2006

Label copy

Pieter Pourbus was the preeminent painter in the city of Bruges in the mid-16th century. He was responsible for integrating Italian style with traditional Netherlandish subject matter. This drawing is a modello for a panel painting depicting the Last Judgment that Pourbus completed in 1551 for the Palace of Justice in Bruges (pictured below). Pourbus borrowed the division of heaven and earth and arrangement of saints from traditional Netherlandish interpretations of the subject. The continuous, swirling movement and dramatically posed, monumental figures, however, are features reflecting Italian versions of the scene, such as Michelangelo’s fresco in the Sistine Chapel, which was known across Europe through printed reproductions.

New Art for Providence
Jul 20, 1990 – Sep 16, 1990

Image use

The images on this website can enable discovery and collaboration and support new scholarship, and we encourage their use.

Public Domain This object is in the Public Domain and available under a CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication

Tombstone

Pieter Jansz. Pourbus (Flemish, 1523/24-1584)
Study for The Last Judgment, ca. 1550-1551
Pen and ink, brush and wash, and white lead heightening over black chalk on toned laid paper
36.4 x 28.6 cm (14 5/16 x 11 1/4 inches)
Bequest of John M. Crawford, Jr. 1989.110.2

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Feedback

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