# Last Judgment Triptych \(central panel\) [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [BOSCH, Hieronymus]() - Date: 1451-1500 - Technique: Mixed technique on panel, 163 x 128 cm ## Commentary This vast panoramic nightmare represents the earth in her final death throes, destroyed not by water as Dürer and Leonardo were to envision it, but by the fire foretold in a thirteenth-century hymn, the sombre Dies Irae: "Day of Wrath, that day when the world dissolves in glowing ashes". Bosch was probably also influenced by the account of the last days given in the Revelation of St John, a book which enjoyed renewed popularity in the late fifteenth century, when it was illustrated by Dürer in his famous <A onclick="return OpenOther\('/html/d/durer/2/12/2apocaly/index.html'\)" HREF="/html/d/durer/2/12/2apocaly/index.html">Apocalypse woodcuts</A> of 1497-98. The wide valley dominating the central panel may represent the Valley of Jehoshaphat, which, on the basis of several Old Testament references \(Joel 4:2,12\), was traditionally thought to be the site of the Last Judgment, with the walls of the earthly Jerusalem blazing in the background. In any event, earth has become indistinguishable from Hell, depicted on the right wing, out of which the army of Satan swarms to attack the damned; the eternity of torment has begun. ## Related artworks - [Adoration of the Child]() - [Adoration of the Magi \(central panel\)]() - [Adoration of the Magi \(detail\)]() - [Adoration of the Magi \(detail\)]() - [Adoration of the Magi \(detail\)]() - [Adoration of the Magi \(detail\)]() - [Adoration of the Magi \(detail\)]() - [Adoration of the Magi \(detail\)]() - [Allegory of Gluttony and Lust]() - [Animal studies]() - [Beehive and Witches]() - [Beggars and Cripples]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()