Workshop of Sir Peter Paul Rubens

Copenhagen, Art Market, in 1953.

D. Freedberg, Rubens, The Life of Christ after the Passion, Oxford 1984, p. 213, under cat. no. 51, version (4) (as a copy of The Last Judgment).

This composition echoes that of the Last Judgement by Rubens, now in the Alte Pinakothek in Munich (inv. AP 611).

Planned at first as a depiction of the fall of the damned dominated by the figure of St Michael, Rubens subsequently added Christ and the Virgin in the upper part. The present composition is a copy of the final version of Rubens’s work and the artist has taken care to leave the two upper corners in reserve, in order to remain faithful to the shape of the original panel. The vigour of the composition, the movement of the bodies, the carefully applied highlights accentuating the skin tones of the naked flesh suggest that the artist was very close to Rubens. Our canvas is the same size as the original work and is probably by one of his pupils, who was able to observe the master’s work and his technique in his studio.