Multi-Disciplinary Complex Research to Reconsider Basic Questions on Attribution and Dating of the Last Judgment Triptych from National Museum in Gdańsk by Rogier van der Weyden and Hans Memling

Abstract

A multi-disciplinary study of the Last Judgment triptych in the National Museum in Gdansk considers the oak support, underdrawing, paint and the interpretation of the artistic process, shedding new light on the work and its creation. Cutting-edge in situ analysis and the examination of micro-samples has been undertaken. The results demonstrate that the work had been created following the Flemish tradition of painting in the Low Countries in the second half of the fifteenth century. Dendrochronology has provided data on the earliest date for the preparation of the oak support to ca. 1460. Infrared reflectography reveals underdrawings showing that in the Christological centre of the composition there were major changes. The triptych was first attributed to brothers van Eyck, then Rogier van der Weyden, in 1843 to Hans Memling. In light of analytical results we suggest that the triptych is the posthumous completion of a work designed and composed by Rogier van der Weyden and finished by Hans Memling.