© RMN-GRAND PALAIS / ART RESOURCE, NY
Do you recognize this portion of a famous painting of a biblical story?
1. Esther before Ahasuerus
by Nicolas Poussin
2. The Triumph of Job
by Guido Reni
3. Jupiter and Thetis
by Jean-Auguste Dominique Ingres
4. The Judgment of Solomon
by Nicolas Poussin
5. The Massacre of the Innocents
by Sano di Pietro
© RMN-GRAND PALAIS / ART RESOURCE, NY
Answer: (4) The Judgment of Solomon
Painted by Nicolas Poussin in 1649 for Jean Pointel—a French banker and silk merchant who was one of Poussin’s largest collectors during his life—The Judgment of Solomon was considered by Poussin to be the best of his paintings. The piece was inspired by a fresco designed by Raphael in the Vatican Lodges, but Poussin’s piece has a stronger sense of symmetry.
From the position of the characters to the columns flanking the throne, the entire scene seems to center on Solomon himself, who sits in judgment over two women who claim the same child as their own (1 Kings 3:16–28). Solomon decides to “solve” the problem by cutting the child in half, knowing the real mother would never allow that to happen. In Poussin’s painting, the false mother, who clutches the limp body of her own baby she accidentally killed in the night (v. 19), is pointing an accusatory finger in anger, while the real mother is begging Solomon for her child’s life (notice that behind her, a soldier has the baby by the heel).
Although born in Normandy, France, Poussin spent most of his life in Rome. There, his friend and patron was Cassiano dal Pozzo, an antiquarian, philosopher, and naturalist whose love of ancient Greece and Rome would influence Poussin’s work.
The Judgment of Solomon is in the Louvre Museum in Paris, along with many of Poussin’s other works.
Do you recognize this portion of a famous painting of a biblical story? 1. Esther before Ahasuerus by Nicolas Poussin 2. The Triumph of Job by Guido Reni 3. Jupiter and Thetis by Jean-Auguste Dominique Ingres 4. The Judgment of Solomon by Nicolas Poussin 5. The Massacre of the Innocents by Sano di Pietro Answer: (4) The Judgment of Solomon Painted by Nicolas Poussin in 1649 for Jean Pointel—a French banker and silk merchant who was one of Poussin’s largest collectors during his life—The Judgment of Solomon was considered by Poussin to be the best of his paintings. The piece was inspired by a fresco […]