Hill-Stone, Inc.

The Last Judgment, Engraving - Price Upon Request

After PIETER BRUGEL,  c. 1525 Eindhoven – 1569 Brussels

The Last Judgment, Engraving. 1558. New Hollstein 8 the first of two states, before the later address of Mariette. A very fine impression; trimmed on and just outside the platemark all around; a tiny loss just above Bruegel’s name lower left and two very short printer’s creases in the text; the surfaces very fresh.

The Last Judgement, shares a formal vocabulary derived from Hieronymus Bosch; the grotesque hybrid devils in the foreground and at the right, leading the damned to eternal torment. The mouth of Hell defined as a monstrous fish is an inheritance from the art of 
the medieval period. The last judgment was one of the most revisited themes of Medieval Art in all media. It was frequently depicted in sculpted Church Portals from the Romanesque period onwards.

Bruegel’s designs for etchings and engravings were published by Hieronymus Cock in Antwert. Cock’s publishing house Aux Quatre Vents, was one of the successful in Europe at the time. Bruegel’s association with Cock dates from 1556 and continued until the artist’s death in 1569. This collaboration resulted in one of the most important and widely disseminated body of printed images in the history of Renaissance Printmaking. As can be imagined, fine early impressions of these works are ever more difficult to find. We are pleased to present the Last Judgment, as well as The Kermis at Hoboken, and Solicitudo
Rustica,  as very fine and important examples of the printmaking of the Northern Renaissance.