The Triumph of Death (Dutch. De triomf van de dood) is a painting by the Flemish artist Pieter Bruegel the Elder, presumably created in the period from 1562 to 1563. The plot of the dance of death, which was popular in those days, was taken as a basis. With this picture, Bruegel conveyed his own perception of the world, as well as the adaptation of the plots of paintings by another famous artist - Hieronymus Bosch.
The painting "Triumph of Death" is kept in the Prado National Museum (Spain). It is quite popular among art critics and connoisseurs, but despite that, it is rarely provided for demonstration in other museums around the world. The last time it was presented to the Vienna Museum of Art History to participate in the exhibition, which was dedicated to the 450th anniversary of the death of Pieter Brueghel the Elder.
History of the painting
The creation of the picture was preceded by a period of travel and relocation of the artist. After visiting Italy and getting to know the work of local colleagues, Bruegel returned to Antwerp in 1554, where he lived and worked. Over time, he moved for some time to Amsterdam, but stayed there for a short time and subsequently finally moved to Brussels, where in the period from 1562 to 1563 the painting "The Triumph of Death" was painted.
The theme of the dead that dance with each other or with living people is a fairly popular plot in medieval art. "Dance of Death" is a synthetic genre that was inherent in European culture from the 14th to the first half of the 16th century. Undoubtedly, the reason for this was the numerous disasters that befell European society - plague epidemics, wars, famine, high mortality rates among the population as a whole. Directly on his canvas, Bruegel depicted the consequences of the "black death", a contemporary of several outbreaks of which he was (in 1544-1548 and 1563-1566).
It is believed that during his trip to Italy, Pieter Bruegel got acquainted with the works of unknown artists, depicting a skeleton on a horse, which rides through a crowd of people, as a key figure in his compositions. This idea inspired him to create a painting with his own version of the presentation, which was named - "The Triumph of Death".
Currently, there is no information about who ordered the painting or owned it for the first time after it was painted. The first reliably known owner of it until 1591 was Vespasiano Gonzaga - an Italian aristocrat, diplomat, writer, military engineer and condottiere, as well as a philanthropist. After the death of the latter in 1591, his daughter, Isabella Gonzaga, became the new owner of the canvas. For the period from 1637 to 1644, the painting came into the possession of the princess - Anna Carrafa (Stigliano, southern Italy). The next owner in 1644 was the Duke - Ramiro Nunez de Guzman. The canvas was in his collection in Naples until 1655, and then in the Madrid collection until 1668. In the period from 1668 to 1745, there is no information about the residence of the painting and its owners. The next mentions of the canvas appear only in 1745, when it was acquired for the collection at the court of the Spanish Queen Elizabeth Farnese. The Triumph of Death remained in La Granja Palace until 1827, when it was transferred to the Prado Museum in Madrid under the number P001393.
Already in 1944, Walter Vanbeselare, Doctor of Art History, Chief Curator of the Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Antwerp, suggested that the painting is part of a trilogy, where its logical continuation is Mad Greta and The Fall of the Rebel Angels. In 2011, his research was supported and significantly developed by Anna Pavlak, who published her dissertation entitled “Trilogie der Gottessuche” by Gebr. Mann Verlag. In her opinion, all three paintings were indeed originally created in the same genre and conceptual identity, namely a trilogy that deals with the theme of vices, ways of salvation and the complex of the invisible presence or absence of God. The unity of the three pictures "is revealed only at a level that arises not only from formal correspondences, but above all in the essence of mental synthesis." Pavlak proposes to unite under a common name - "The Trilogy of the Search for God."
Since the painting does not have the author's signature, from time to time there are discussions about the date of completion of the work. In his 1968 article Bruegel's The Triumph of Death Reconsidered, art critic Peter Thon suggested that the painting was painted in the late 1560s, but not earlier than 1567. As an argument, he put forward his hypotheses that death was personified in the plot by a figure Duke of Alba and his activities in the Netherlands. Since the events described took place since 1567, the picture was not painted earlier than this date. His views were also shared by the Belgian - Robert Leon Delevoy. This version was opposed by the Hungarian art historian and expert Charles de Tolnay. He announced that the date of writing is 1562, drawing parallels with another painting by the author - "The Fall of the Rebel Angels." Both works have many similarities in the manner of execution and style, and since the latter has a signature, then the "Triumph of Death" should be attributed to a similar period of creation.
At the end of April 2018, the Prado National Museum presented the painting "Triumph of Death" for inspection after almost two years of restoration. The restoration work was carried out by Maria Antonia López de Acienne and José de la Fuente with the support of the Fundación Iberdrola España program. The restoration work consisted of restoring structural stability and original colors, a unique painting technique based on precise strokes in the background areas and clarity in the foregrounds.
The original painting, as it became known during the restoration, was hidden under a significant layer of paint, which indicates the unsuccessful previous attempts to restore the painting. Thanks to the work of Spanish artists, the effect of tone uniformity was restored. This was made possible through the use of infrared reflectography and the study of copies that were made by Bruegel's sons.
