1583
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
Dominant colour
Balaam and the Ass is a 1583 by Hans Bol, a Renaissance work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
You see a tiny, busy scene: a man on a donkey, an angel with a sword, and a sprawling countryside with farms, rivers, and a distant city. This painting is really a landscape in disguise. The Bible story is shoved to the side—what Bol cared about was showing off the rolling hills and towers of the Netherlands. He mixed real places with made-up ones, giving city folks a pretty escape. Look up *sfumato*—the soft, hazy way Bol blurred the far-off hills.
While this small miniature, made with watercolor on parchment, depicts a scene from the Old Testament in the left foreground, its primary subject is the expansive rural scene, landscape, and distant hillside city beyond. Hans Bol combined realistic city views, based on his onsite observation, with imaginary scenes and narratives, appealing to his late-16th-century urban Netherlandish audience. The story of the Balaam and the Ass was associated with greed in the period. The miniature was likely paired with other scenes highlighting contemporary moral issues to be displayed together in a…
This work is mounted on panel, suggesting that it was once inlaid into a piece of furniture or wainscotting in a wealthy 16th-century home.
Read the full account in the museum source.
Hans Bol or Jan Bol (16 December 1534 – 20 November 1593), was a Flemish painter, miniature painter, print artist and draftsman.
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