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Lot Essay
This is an early idea for the monumental canvas, measuring nearly 4 by 16 metre, showing The Last Judgment in the Sala dello Scrutinio, Palazzo Ducale, Venice (Fig. 1; S. Mason Rinaldi, Palma il Giovane. L'opera completa, Milan, 1984, no. 539, fig. 213). Other studies for the picture, which show Christ in a pose similar to that in the present sheet, are in the Kupferstichkabinett, Berlin and Universitätsbibliothek, Salzburg (ibid., nos. D14 and D179, figs. 211-212). To judge from the complexity and importance of the project, many more studies for it must have existed.
The immense Sala dello Scrutinio, built from the 1520s to the 1540s, was initially used as a library. In 1532, however, it was decided that the hall should be used for electoral counting and political assemblies. The hall was destroyed by fire in 1577 and was rebuilt and decorated from 1578. For this ambitious decorative scheme a number of artists were employed, among them Andrea Vicentino, Pietro Liberi and Pietro Bellotti, as well as Palma, who painted his picture between 1594 and 1595.
Fig. 1. Jacopo Negretti, Palma il Giovane, The Last Judgement , oil on canvas, Palazzo Ducale, Venice.
The immense Sala dello Scrutinio, built from the 1520s to the 1540s, was initially used as a library. In 1532, however, it was decided that the hall should be used for electoral counting and political assemblies. The hall was destroyed by fire in 1577 and was rebuilt and decorated from 1578. For this ambitious decorative scheme a number of artists were employed, among them Andrea Vicentino, Pietro Liberi and Pietro Bellotti, as well as Palma, who painted his picture between 1594 and 1595.
Fig. 1. Jacopo Negretti, Palma il Giovane, The Last Judgement , oil on canvas, Palazzo Ducale, Venice.
