Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum has announced that it will host Lucas van Leyden’s epic altarpiece “The Last Judgment,” 1526-27 until 2018 while its home — Museum De Lakenhal in Leiden — undergoes renovations.The four-meter-long altarpiece, one of the few epic works to escape the iconoclasms of the Protestant Reformation, has left its home in Leiden only twice in the last 450 years. The Rijksmuseum is marking this historic move by giving the piece its own section within their Gallery of Honour. Here, it will stand near the museum's collection of Rembrandt works, referencing the link between the two artists: the man who saved the painting from Leiden’s Pieterskerk was the father of Rembrandt’s first master when he was a mere apprentice painter.The Rijksmuseum’s General Director Taco Dibbits said in a press release that “The Last Judgement” is the “most important surviving altarpiece in the Netherlands,” also lauding its “suggestion of immeasurable space.” Museum De Lakenhal also praises the artist on its website, admiring how Van Leyden “added narrative qualities to both Biblical and profane subject matter.” “The Last Judgment” is one of his most narrative works, with heaven and hell portrayed on the left and right panels respectively, and Jesus’ judgment in the central painting, with the dead rising from their graves. On the back — hidden from view at the Rijksmuseum — are images of St. Peter and St. Paul, patrons of the original home of the work at the Pieterskerk.“The Last Judgment” is the first of nine works from Lakenhal that will be showcased at the Rijksmuseum through 2016 and 2017, as part of a cooperation agreement signed in 2014.
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