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King David Receiving the Cistern Water of Bethlehem

Master of the Antwerp Adoration Group

1518

oil

canvas

From the collection of Art Institute of Chicago

Northern Renaissance Renaissance Renaissance Religious

Dominant colour

About this work

The painting shows King David sitting on a throne, receiving a gift of water from Bethlehem. This scene is part of a larger story. It was originally part of a folding triptych, which is a type of artwork with three sections that can be closed like a book. The artist used a detailed style to paint this scene, and to learn more about similar styles, look up the work of the Master of the Antwerp Adoration Group.

The story of this work

Overview

This scene and that of King Solomon Receiving the Queen of Sheba are particularly fine examples of the decorative style practiced in Antwerp by a group of largely anonymous artists now dubbed Antwerp Mannerists. The paintings originally formed the interior of the wings of a folding triptych with the Adoration of the Magi as its center. Both show gifts being presented to a ruler on his throne and would have been understood as Old Testament prefigurations of the submission of the nations to Christ as king, the theme of the lost Adoration panel. They also provided an excuse for the artist to…

Provenance

Durand-Ruel, Paris, by 1880/82 [Durand-Ruel stockbook for these years; letter from Caroline Durand-Ruel Godfroy, Oct. 19, 1999, in curatorial file]; sold to Charles L. Hutchinson (d. 1924), Chicago, May 8, 1890 [shipped to Chicago on July 16, 1890, Art Institute Archive]; by descent to his widow, Frances Kinsley Hutchinson (d. 1936), Chicago; bequeathed to the Art Institute, 1936.

Publication history

Salomon Reinach, Répertoire de peintures du moyen âge et de la renaissance (1280–1580), vol. 2 (Paris: A. Burdin, 1907), 13, no. 1 (ill.; line drawing). John La Farge, “Art in America: Two Works Formerly Attributed to Herri met de Bles,” Burlington Magazine 12 (1908): 387–88 (ill. opp. p. 387). Bulletin of the Art Institute of Chicago (1936): 40. “A Tour of the World of Art in 150 Masterpieces,” Masterpieces 1 (1950), p. 61 (ill. 1936.126). The Art Institute of Chicago, Paintings in The Art Institute of Chicago: A Catalogue of the Picture Collection (Chicago: Art Institute, 1961), 300.…

Read the full account in the museum source.