David and Uriah explained

David and Uriah
Artist:Rembrandt van Rijn
Year:circa 1665
Medium:oil on canvas
Height Metric:127
Width Metric:116
City:St-Petersburg
Museum:Hermitage

David and Uriah is a late, oil-on-canvas painting by Rembrandt, dated to around 1665 by the Hermitage Museum (which owns it[1]) or c. 1666–1669 in the 2015 Late Rembrandt exhibition at the Rijksmuseum. It shows the moment when David sends Uriah the Hittite to the frontline of the war with the Ammonites so that David can sleep with Uriah's wife Bathsheba.[2] Uriah is identified as the foreground figure, with David and Nathan in the background. It was first given this title by Abraham Bredius in his catalogue of Rembrandt's work – this has been supported by several other scholars from 1950 onwards, including in a 1965 study by Madlyn Kahr.[3]

The work has also been identified as Haman Recognises His Fate after Haman from the Book of Esther. It entered the Russian imperial collection in 1773 with that title, which the Hermitage still retains.[4] [5]

See also

References

  1. https://www.hermitagemuseum.org/wps/portal/hermitage/digital-collection/01.+paintings/43482 Catalogue page - Hermitage
  2. Melissa Ricketts: Rembrandt. Meester van licht en schaduw, Rebo, 2006, blz. 121.
  3. http://www.wga.hu/html_m/r/rembrand/15oldtes/25oldtes.html Web Gallery of Art entry
  4. https://www.jstor.org/stable/750673?seq=19#fndtn-page_scan_tab_contents Madlyn Kahr: A Rembrandt Problem: Haman or Uriah? Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes. Vol. 28, 1965, blz. 258-273
  5. https://books.google.com/books?id=2pd71BL1CQAC&dq=rembrandt+uriah&pg=PA125 Analyse in John Caroll: De teloorgang van de westerse cultuur. Een andere kijk op 500 jaar humanisme