Heaven and Hell | The early panel paintings in the Paintings Gallery

In the newly adapted exhibition rooms on the first floor of the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts, the Paintings Gallery is presenting a series of rarely displayed early panel paintings from its own holdings. The focus lies on the depictions of eternal bliss or damnation, celestial spheres and earthly suffering, images still rooted in the late medieval Christian imagination.

Surrounded by Early Netherlandish, Early German and Italian paintings from the late Gothic era to the Renaissance, the centrepiece of the exhibition is the Last Judgement by Hieronymus Bosch with its apocalyptic visions and diabolic creatures. Highlights include works by Dierc Bouts and Lucas Cranach the Elder, Florentine Madonnas painted on gold ground, of which the Gallery, uniquely among Viennese collections, holds a number of rare examples, together with Renaissance portraits of nobles and commoners.