(Antwerp 1530-1584) The Last Judgement, after Pieter Bruegel the Elder, 1558, engraving, on fine laid paper, monogrammed, inscribed and dated "Brueghel. invet/ H. Cock. excude. cum. privileg. 1558" in the plate, 22,5 x 29,2 cm, trimmed along platemarks, Hollstein 121 (after P. Bruegel), Hollstein 18 (Pieter van der Heyden), mounted, framed, (Sch)

Provenance:
An adhesive label "Valeria Bella Stampe, Milano" on the reverse; private collection, Italy.

Literature:
Hans Mielke, Pieter Bruegel, die Zeichnungen, Turnhout 1996, No. 40; A. K. Pieter Bruegel the Elder. Drawings and Prints, New York 2001, No. 56; A. K. Bosch, Bruegel, Rubens, Rembrandt. Meisterwerke der Albertina, ed. by K. A. Schröder and C. Metzger, Albertina, Vienna, Ostfildern 2013, No. 43.

In the late 1550s Pieter Bruegel the Elder created the series "The Cardinal Sins“ (The Seven Deadly Sins), published by Hieronymus Cock in 1558 and engraved by Pieter van der Heyden. The related pendant of this series „The Seven Virtues“ appeared somewhat later in 1559/60. The present sheet representing The Last Judgement is the eighth and last one of the the cardinal sins and is considered the transition to the realm of the vices. The composition is based on a drawing by Pieter Bruegel the Elder (c. 1560) which is kept in the Albertina Museum (Inv. 7874). When designing the topic Bruegel relied on a medieval pictorial tradition. The eerie fantastic figures, which crowd the lower part of the sheet, however, are owed to the repertoire von Hieronymus Bosch