Image Details

Photo by Ron Lee, The Silver Factory/The Arnett Collection, Atlanta, GA

Glass jewels and glitter adorn the veiled crown of Jezebel, and twisted branches, speckled with paint, form the queen’s body, in this 4-foot-tall sculpture by the African-American artist Bessie Harvey. With arms outstretched, the figure appears to have been crucified. At the bottom of the sculpture, spotted paint, wide eyes and faux-pearl teeth represent the dogs that devoured the flesh of Jezebel after she was thrown to her death at Jehu’s command (2 Kings 9:33–37).

Harvey, who worked with scraps of wood and other found objects before her death in 1994, said she hoped to free “the souls in the branches and roots.” Although the figure of Jezebel is difficult to make out—the queen’s face appears (at least twice) on both the front (see detail of veiled crown of Jezebel) and the back (above)—this enigmatic sculpture of Jezebel as victim of a brutal murder may be one of the most sympathetic portraits of Jezebel ever created.