David hands Goliath's head over to King Saul

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David hands Goliath's head over to King Saul (Rembrandt van Rijn)
David hands Goliath's head over to King Saul
Rembrandt van Rijn , 1627
Oil on oak
27.4 x 39.7 cm
Art Museum Basel

David hands Goliath's head over to King Saul is an oil painting by the Dutch painter Rembrandt van Rijn . It isexecuted inlandscape format on oak and was likely painted as an oil sketch for a larger work, whether it was executed in 1627 or earlier is not known.

description

The painting is painted overall in rough, sketch-like brushstrokes. In the center of the painting is Saul , the first king of the Israelites . He wears a costly yellow robe richly trimmed with brocade and over it a long cloak made of the same material, the long train of which is held by two pages. Over his robe he wears a white, blue and yellow patterned waist band, on his head a white turban with yellow and red applications and a feather. Saul is shown in profile facing to the right, he has turned his cloak back with his right arm and placed his left hand on Samuel's arm. Apparently he's talking to Samuel or David.

Across from Saul, David kneels , facing the king, with the head of the slain Goliath in his hands. David wears a short gray-blue robe over a white shirt that protrudes from the collar and left upper arm. He wears a light gray shoulder bag over his robe. It is probably the shepherd's bag in which he previously transported the stones for the confrontation with Goliath ( 1 Sam 17.37-40  EU ). In his arms David holds a gray cloth on which lies Goliat's head, which is hardly recognizable as such in the painting.

Behind David, and partly hidden by him, stands a man in a splendid pink cloak trimmed with brocade, leaning slightly forward and looking at Goliat's head, whose head is covered with a bright, brightly patterned and feathered turban. It is Saul's general Abner , who is holding the towering, oversized sword of Goliath in his right hand. An old man with a thin line of white hair and a long white beard stands bent over between Abner and Saul. He wears a light blue cape with a white pattern and a wide, light collar, possibly a fur collar . This figure probably represents the prophet Samuel .

The left quarter of the painting is occupied by a rider on a rather coarse-boned gray horse shown from behind on the right. The rider wears an elaborate blue robe with yellow and brown patterns and a feathered turban of the same color. He wears leather riding boots and a quiver with numerous arrows on his back. A sword pommel is visible on his left side and a bow protrudes from a gray sheath in front of his right leg. The rider is turned slightly to the right and is watching the scene. It is likely that it is Saul's son Jonathan who will later become close friends with David.

Detail, possible self-portrait in the middle

On the right edge of the picture, a soldier sits in the shadow in the foreground, with his back to the viewer. A spear that probably belongs to him lies on the ground, its tip pointing to a dog in the foreground. Behind the seated soldier, also in the shade and facing the scene with Saul and David, stands an armored soldier with a feathered turban and lance. The painting shows more than 15 other minor characters, of which often only a small part is visible. The second portrait to the right of Saul is very similar to the self-portraits that Rembrandt inserted into several of his history paintings in the late 1620s. Numerous lances towering in the background deepen the impression that a large number of soldiers have gathered here. Two more gray horses are partially shown in the middle and right background.

In the foreground on the left there are some plants, in the middle a medium-sized, dark-spotted white dog with a golden-yellow collar barks Saul's head. The background is a dark gray-blue army tent with a spherical top against the cloudy sky painted in different shades of gray. To the right in the background is a soldier with a lance in front of a post to which a roof is attached. The construction is apparently built on rocks and gives the impression of a shelter for a guard. The entire scene is illuminated from the top right, with the main characters being emphasized by the incidence of light and their colors compared to all other figures.

In the middle of the lower edge of the picture is a cartouche painted with a thin brown outline. Inside is the painting in the same color with individual letters RH. Monogrammed and dated 1627 . The dash of the H is not clearly recognizable. The signature differs from the other signatures from 1627, which were made in cursive. In its perspective execution, however, it resembles signatures from 1626, for example Tobias suspects his wife of theft and the baptism of the chamberlain .

The painting has the format 27.4 × 39.7 cm and is painted with oil paint on oak wood with a horizontal grain. The base consists of a single board about 5 millimeters thick. On the left edge, 12.8 cm from the lower edge, there is a crack about nine centimeters long. The board is beveled at the top and on both sides. In addition to the size of the board, the lack of bevel at the lower edge is an indication of a reduction in size. A common dimension for a panel was 31.3 x 41.7 cm (12 x 16 Rhenish inches ). David hands Goliath's head over to King Saul. It was probably painted on the already reduced size tablet.

The paint layer is very well preserved, very fine craquelure can only be seen in a few white areas . The X-ray image shows that the panel was painted earlier; the image rotated clockwise by 90 degrees shows the shoulder piece of a young man with a turban-like headgear. Since no brushstrokes can be seen, the first painting was likely sanded smooth before a new primer was applied or the new painting was painted on. On the thinly painted parts of the seated soldier in the right foreground and in some other areas of the painting, brownish-yellow color emerges. This can be an original primer that emerges from the coincidental thin application of paint in both pictures. but it can also be a second primer applied to the first painting.

Biblical background

In the first book of Samuel of the Jewish Tanakh and the Old Testament , the history of Israel begins with the request of the prophetess Hannah for a son and the birth of her son Samuel , the election of Saul as king, the competition between Saul and the god-favored David up to Saul's suicide and the death of his sons in the battle against the Philistines . The painting shows a scene after David defeated the Philistine Goliath with a slingshot and beheaded him. He returns to Jerusalem with Goliat's head in hand and is received by Abner's general. He kneels before Saul with Goliath's head. He asks him about his origin and David reveals himself to be the son of Jesse from Bethlehem , to whom the motif of the root Jesse goes back ( 1 Sam 17.57  EU ). The fact that the prophet Samuel is depicted between Saul and David contradicts biblical tradition. Accordingly, Samuel did not see Saul again after he killed Agag , the king of the Amalekites , in his presence ( 1 Sam 15  EU ). However, a renewed encounter of Samuel and Saul in a different context is also mentioned in the Bible ( 1 Sam 19.23-24  EU ). The scene painted by Rembrandt must be distinguished from David's triumphant return to Jerusalem, which is described in the next chapter of the first book of Samuel ( 1 Sam 18 : 1-9  EU ). The triumphant homecoming is represented much more frequently in Christian art than the handing over of the head of Goliath.

Art historical classification

History painting with self-portrait of the painter (possibly Palamedes in front of Agamemnon ), oil on wood, 90.1 × 121.3 cm, 1626, Museum De Lakenhal , Leiden

Rembrandt completed three and a half years of training from 1620 to 1624 with the painter Jacob Isaacsz van Swanenburgh from Leiden , who is known for his depictions of hell . Rembrandt may have learned the play with light and shadow from him, which is echoed here in the spotlight-like scene and the figures in the shadows. In 1624 Rembrandt studied with Pieter Lastman in Amsterdam for half a year . With the Stoning of St. Stephen and the Leiden History Painting, Rembrandt created two larger paintings in 1625 and 1626, which in many ways resemble the oil sketch with David and the head of Goliath. During this time Rembrandt worked with Jan Lievens in a joint studio in Leiden.

With his sketchy, rough execution, David hands Goliath's head over to King Saul in Rembrandt's early work completely alone. Because of the signature and the date, Kurt Bauch rejected the possibility that the painting was a draft or a sketch. The Rembrandt Research Project, however, points to similarities in the composition and execution of the figures with the stoning of St. Stephen and the history painting with the painter's self-portrait . It is conceivable that the oil sketch was used to design a comparably large painting. There may also be a connection between all three paintings, whereby Rembrandt would have added his monogram and the date 1627 only at the time of an upcoming sale of the painting.

Coriolanus and the Mothers of Rome , Pieter Lastman , oil on panel, 81 × 133 cm, 1622, Trinity College Dublin
Adoration of the Magi , Lucas Vorsterman d. Ä., After Peter Paul Rubens , 1621, etching on two plates, 570 × 386 mm (left) and 554 × 355 mm (right)

In the early works of Rembrandt with religious or historical motifs, his desire to become a great history painter was expressed. Most of them clearly show his role models. The Dutch art historians Wilhelm Martin and Ben Broos see Coriolanus, painted in 1622 by Rembrandt's later teacher Pieter Lastman , and the Mothers of Rome in Trinity College Dublin as the template for David hands Goliath's head over to King Saul . In addition to the large tent in the left background, a multitude of other details speak for this, such as the rider on the left edge of the picture, the figure turned with his back to the viewer on the right edge of the picture, or the army represented by the numerous lances shown. Furthermore, there are clear parallels with the print Adoration of the Kings by Lucas Vorsterman the Elder , published in 1621 . Ä., After Peter Paul Rubens to recognize. This print exists in an anonymous imitation that Rembrandt gave Goliath's head to King Saul for David and used as a model for the self-portrait in oriental clothing with a poodle in 1631 . In his work on the iconography of Rembrandt's historical pictures, Christian Tümpel named a copper engraving after Maarten van Heemskerck , which shows the friendship bond between David and Jonathan in a background scene, as a further source of inspiration.

The employees of the Rembrandt Research Project (RRP) interpret the depicted scene in the first volume of their corpus in a much broader way than limited to the handover of the head of Goliath. They interpret the actually unnecessary illustration of the prophet Samuel as Samuel's recognition of David as the future king of the Israelites. Jonathan is also shown only as an observer of Saul and David to indicate his future friendship with David and his support for David against his own father. In this respect, David becomes the real main character of the picture through the references to the other figures.

reception

David hands Goliath's head over to King Saul was first published in 1909 in Burlington Magazine by the English art historian and art critic Claude Phillips and referred to as a work of Rembrandt. Since then, its authenticity has never been questioned. Rembrandt's David with Goliat's head as number 34 is already listed in Cornelis Hofstede de Groot's catalog raisonné. In 1935 Abraham Bredius assigned the number 488. In Kurt Bauch's catalog raisonné of the paintings published in 1966, David gives Goliath's head to King Saul with the number 3 and recognized as the original. He was followed by Gerson, who in 1968 also assigned the painting No. 3 in his catalog raisonné, and listed it again as No. 488 in his revision of the catalog raisonné by Abraham Bredius. In 1982 the painting was included by the Rembrandt Research Project (RRP) with the number A 9 in the first volume of the Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings . The staff described David handing Goliath's head over to King Saul as a very well-preserved, unusual but without a doubt original work by Rembrandt, with an authentic signature and date. Christian Tümpel gave the painting the number 3 in his catalog raisonné, the sixth volume of the Corpus lists it as number 8.

Copies

Oil sketch after David hands Goliath's head to King Saul , unknown imitator, after 1639, 27.2 × 39.6 cm, estate of Isabel and Alfred Bader

Copies in the strict sense are not known. There is an oil sketch on wood that was ascribed to an anonymous copier. The 27.2 × 39.6 cm painting is painted much more roughly than Rembrandt's sketch almost everywhere. In addition, despite the almost identical size of the panel, it only shows the image section from the rider on the left edge of the image to the kneeling David. The condition of the partially beveled edges on the back suggests that the sketch was originally larger. However, some elements from Rembrandt's sketch are also missing on the surviving part, such as the guard post to the right of the tent and numerous towering spears. The Kunstmuseum Basel mentions the sketch on its website as a possible earlier design by Rembrandt. However, the dendrochronological investigation by Peter Klein revealed the year 1639 as the earliest possible use date of the wooden panel. Twelve years behind Rembrandt's David, Goliath's head is handed over to King Saul , who for stylistic reasons is no longer the author, as is his fellow painter Jan Lievens . In some places the sketch shows a trained and confident artist. Hence, it is likely that the sketch was made as a reminder or simply out of interest in Rembrandt's work. The sketch is first recorded in the collection of the French art historian and collector André de Hevesy (1882–1955) in Paris. In 1988 and 1989 it was owned by the Swedish actor and art dealer Lennart Lundh (1928–1997) in Paris. In 1995 it was bought by the American entrepreneur, art collector and philanthropist Alfred Bader .

Another David hands Goliath's head over to King Saul's work is mentioned by the Rembrandt Research Group. It is a wooden panel measuring 52 × 84 cm, which differs from the original in numerous details. The scene has been enlarged as a whole, a horseman procession is added to the right. The center of the representation with the main characters is designed quite close to the original. The sword of Goliat lies across the foreground on a stone, underneath is a false signature RHL f (?) 1644 (?). Under this signature there is an earlier and now illegible signature. Since the appraisal was only based on a black and white photograph, no dating or attribution can be made. It is believed to be the work of a moderate artist from the second half of the 17th century who was under the distant influence of Rembrandt. The painting was owned by S. and G. Gump in San Francisco prior to 1950. It is likely to refer to the luxury furniture and furnishings store Gump's, which was founded in 1861 by Solomon and Gustav Gump in San Francisco and belonged to Alfred L. Gump, who died in 1947, during the first half of the 20th century. In 1964 the painting was in the Marsmayer Collection in Schüttorf, Lower Saxony. Its whereabouts are unclear.

Provenance

On the back of the plaque is a wax seal with the coat of arms of the Baronets Oxenden of Dene in Kent . The painting was apparently in the possession of the Oxenden family at an indefinite time. It later belonged to Eyre Hussey of Mudeford, Christchurch in Dorset . On February 18, 1909, it was sold together with 46 other paintings from an English collection as the supposed work of Gerbrand van den Eeckhout with lot no. 82 auctioned by Robinson, Fisher & Co. in London. The painting went to the London art dealer Frank R. Richardson for nine and a half guineas . On May 11, 1909, the Munich gallery Heinemann bought the painting for 16,184.75 marks. The picture was subsequently exhibited on loan in the Alte Pinakothek . On January 22, 1916, it was sold to the art dealer Frederik Muller & Co. in Amsterdam for 50,000 Dutch guilders , which corresponded to 98,431.82 marks (according to the Heinemann gallery) or 118,623.95 marks (according to the stock book).

Frederik Muller & Co. sold the painting to entrepreneur, art collector and philanthropist August Janssen (1864–1918) in Amsterdam. After his death it came to the art dealer Jacques Goudstikker , also in Amsterdam. From 1919 to 1927 Goudstikker presented it repeatedly at exhibitions. This was followed by the paper manufacturer, art collector and patron Pieter Smidt van Gelder (1878–1956) in Bloemendaal , who is proven to be the owner in 1928 and was also mentioned as such by Abraham Breidius in his catalog raisonné from 1935. In 1938 the painting came to the art dealer Daniel Katz in Dieren , who sold it in 1939 to the Basel collector Max Geldner (1875–1958). Geldner bequeathed the painting to the Kunstmuseum Basel in 1948 , which took it over after his death in 1958.

Exhibitions (chronological)

  • Pulchri Studio , The Hague, Netherlands. November to December 1919, catalog no. 102
  • Rotterdamse Kunstkring , Rotterdam, Netherlands. May 16 to June 6, 1920, catalog no. 41
  • Rotterdamse Kunstkring, Rotterdam, Netherlands. December 20, 1924 to January 11, 1925, catalog no. 60
  • Art dealer Jacques Goudstikker , Amsterdam, Netherlands. 1926 to 1927, catalog no. 76
  • Art dealer Jacques Goudstikker, Amsterdam, Netherlands. February 19, 1927 to 1928, catalog no. 1
  • Royal Academy of Arts , London, England. Exhibition Exhibition of Dutch art, 1450–1900 (German: Exhibition of Dutch art, 1450–1900 ), January 4 to March 9, 1929, catalog no . 136
  • Rijksmuseum Amsterdam , Netherlands. Exhibition Rembrandt tentoonstelling ter plechtige herdenking van het 300-jarig bestaan ​​der Universiteit van Amsterdam (German: Rembrandt exhibition to commemorate the 300th anniversary of the University of Amsterdam ), June 11th to September 4th 1932, catalog no. 1
  • Boijmans Museum , Rotterdam, Netherlands. Exhibition of Meesterwerken uit vier eeuwen 1400–1800. Tentoonstelling van schilderijen en teekeningen uit particuliere verzamelingen in Nederland bijeen brought gedurende de veertigjarige regeering van HM Koningin Wilhelmina (German: masterpieces from four centuries 1400–1800. Exhibition of paintings and drawings from private collections that were brought together during the forty-year reign of Her Majesty Queen Wilhelmina ) , June 25 to October 15, 1938, catalog no. 124
  • Kunstmuseum Basel , Switzerland. Exhibition In the Light of Holland. Dutch painting of the 17th century from the collections of the Prince of Liechtenstein and from Swiss property , 14 July to 27 September 1987, catalog no. 80

literature

  • Stichting Foundation Rembrandt Research Project (Ed.): A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings. I. 1625-1631. Martinus Nijhoff, Den Haag, Boston, London 1982, ISBN 978-94-009-7519-4 , Work A 9 David with the head of Goliath before Saul , pp. 129-136.

Web links

Commons : David hands Goliath's head over to King Saul  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Stichting Foundation Rembrandt Research Project (Ed.): A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings. I. 1625-1631, pp. 129-130.
  2. ^ Ernst van de Wetering: Rembrandt, a biography. In: Gemäldegalerie der Staatliche Museen zu Berlin (Ed.): Rembrandt. Genius in search. DuMont Literature and Art, Cologne 2006, ISBN 3-8321-7694-2 , pp. 21–49.
  3. ↑ a b Stichting Foundation Rembrandt Research Project (Ed.): A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings. VI. Rembrandt's Paintings Revisited. A Complete Survey. Springer Science + Business Media, Dordrecht 2015, ISBN 978-94-017-9173-1 , work no. 8, pp. 482-483.
  4. ^ Wilhelm Martin: De Hollandsche schilderkunst in de zeventiende eeuw. Rembrandt en zijn tijd. Onze 17e eeuwsche sign art in haren bloeitijd en nabloei . Meulenhoff, Amsterdam 1936, p. 55, digitizedhttp: //vorlage_digitalisat.test/1%3Dhttps%3A%2F%2Fwww.dbnl.org%2Ftekst%2Fmart039holl02_01%2Fcolofon.php~GB%3D~IA%3D~MDZ%3D%0A~SZ%3D~ double-sided% 3D ~ LT% 3D ~ PUR% 3D .
  5. ↑ a b Stichting Foundation Rembrandt Research Project (Ed.): A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings. I. 1625-1631, pp. 130-136.
  6. ^ Wilhelm Martin: Een onbekend schilderij van Pieter Lastman . In: Oud Holland - Journal for Art of the Low Countries 1925, Volume 42, No. 1, pp. 47-60, doi: 10.1163 / 187501725X00086 .
  7. ↑ BPJ Broos : Rembrandt and Lastman's "Coriolanus". The History Piece in 17th-Century Theory and Practice. In: Simiolus. Netherlands Quarterly for the History of Art 1975, Vol. 8, No. 4, pp. 199-228, doi: 10.2307 / 3780385 .
  8. ↑ JLAAM van Rijckevorsel: Rembrandt en de traditie . Dissertation, Roomsch Katholieke Universiteit Nijmegen and WL and J. Brusse's, Rotterdam 1932, pp. 67–71, digitizedhttp: //vorlage_digitalisat.test/1%3Dhttp%3A%2F%2Fhdl.handle.net%2F2066%2F107162~GB%3D~IA%3D~MDZ%3D%0A~SZ%3D~ double-sided%3D~LT% 3D ~ PUR% 3D .
  9. ^ Christian Tümpel: Studies on the Iconography of the Histories of Rembrandt. Interpretation and interpretation of the picture content . In: Netherlands Yearbook for History of Art / Nederlands Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek Online 1969, Volume 20, No. 1, pp. 107-198, doi: 10.1163 / 22145966-90000411 .
  10. ^ A b Claude Phillips: The new Rembrandt . In: The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs 1909, Volume 15, No. 74, pp. 68 and 71-72, JSTOR 857905 .
  11. ↑ a b Cornelis Hofstede de Groot: Descriptive and critical list of the works of the most outstanding Dutch painters of the XVII. Century. Sixth volume. Paul Neff, Esslingen a. N. - Paris 1915, Werk 34, pp. 24-25, digitized, Heidelberg University Library .
  12. ↑ a b Abraham Bredius : Rembrandt. The complete edition of the paintings. Third edition. Revised by Horst Gerson. Phaidon, London 1969, ISBN 0-7148-1341-9 , work no.488.
  13. ↑ Kurt Bauch : Rembrandt. Painting. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin 1966, reprint 2018, ISBN 978-3-11-005007-3 , No. 41.
  14. ^ Horst Gerson: Rembrandt paintings. Meulenhoff International, Amsterdam 1968. German: Rembrandt paintings. Complete works. Vollmer, Wiesbaden 1968, work no.2.
  15. ↑ Abraham Bredius: Rembrandt. The complete edition of the paintings. Third edition. Revised by Horst Gerson. Phaidon, London 1969, ISBN 0-7148-1341-9 , Werrk No. 488.
  16. ^ Christian Tümpel : Rembrandt. Myth and Method. With contributions by Astrid Tümpel . Mercatorfonds, Antwerp 1986, ISBN 90-6153-165-9 .
  17. ↑ Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn, David hands Goliath's head over to King Saul , website of the Kunstmuseum Basel , accessed on October 16, 2019.
  18. ^ David de Witt: The Bader Collection. Dutch and Flemish Paintings . Agnes Etherington Art Center, Queen's University, Kingston, Canada 2008, pp. 32–33, ISBN 978-1-55339-094-7 , PDF, 79 MBhttp: //vorlage_digitalisat.test/1%3Dhttps%3A%2F%2Fagnes.queensu.ca%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2008%2F01%2FThe-Bader-Collection-Dutch-and-Flemish-Paintings_300dpi_opt_29Aug.pdf~%GB 3D ~ IA% 3D ~ MDZ% 3D% 0A ~ SZ% 3D ~ double-sided% 3D ~ LT% 3DPDF% 2C% 2079% 20MB ~ PUR% 3D .
  19. ^ After Rembrandt. David with Goliath's head before Saul (1 Samuel 17: 57-58), na 1627 on the website of the RKD - Nederlands Instituut voor Kunstgeschiedenis , accessed on October 16, 2019.
  20. ↑ a b c Stichting Foundation Rembrandt Research Project (Ed.): A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings. I. 1625-1631, p. 136.
  21. ↑ a b Rembrandt. David with Goliath's head before Saul (1 Samuel 17: 57-58), 1627 gedateerd on the website of the RKD - Nederlands Instituut voor Kunstgeschiedenis , accessed on October 16, 2019.
  22. ↑ David brings Saul the head of Goliath , website Galerie Heinemann Online of the Germanisches Nationalmuseum , with images from the card index of sold images, buyer index and stock books, accessed on October 16, 2019.
  23. ↑ Cornelis Hofstede de Groot: Rembrandt's Youthful Works . In: The Burlington Magazine 1924, Volume 44, No. 252, pp. 124, 126-127, JSTOR 862036 .
  24. ↑ Rijksmuseum Amsterdam (ed.): Rembrandt tentoonstelling ter plechtige herdenking van het 300-year bestaan ​​of the Universiteit van Amsterdam. Rijksmuseum Amsterdam June 11th - September 4th 1932 . Rijksmuseum Amsterdam 1932, catalog no. 1, p. 35, digitizedhttp: //vorlage_digitalisat.test/1%3Dhttps%3A%2F%2Fresolver.kb.nl%2Fresolve%3Furn%3DMMKB05%3A000031525%3Apdf~GB%3D~IA%3D~MDZ%3D%0A~SZ%3D~ double-sided% 3D ~ LT% 3D ~ PUR% 3D .
  25. ^ Museum Boymans (ed.) - Meesterwerken uit vier eeuwen 1400-1800. Tentoonstelling van schilderijen en teekeningen uit particuliere verzamelingen in Nederland. Bijeen brought about de veertigjarige regeering from HM Queen Wilhelmina . Museum Boymans, Rotterdam 1938, work no.124, PDF, 15.7 MBhttp: //vorlage_digitalisat.test/1%3Dhttps%3A%2F%2Fresolver.kb.nl%2Fresolve%3Furn%3DMMKB06%3A000003197%3Apdf~GB%3D~IA%3D~MDZ%3D%0A~SZ%3D~ double-sided% 3D ~ LT% 3DPDF% 2C% 2015% 2C7% 20MB ~ PUR% 3D .