This week, for a change, a contribution from art historian Jos Hanou:
This painting, King Solomon’s idolatry, shows a scene from 1 Kings 11:1-13. Solomon’s ‘many strange wives’ tempted the old – here not so wise – king into worshipping their pagan gods with incense and sacrifices. Obviously, this did not sit well with the powers that be: ‘the LORD was angry with Solomon, because his heart was turned from the LORD God of Israel’. God’s punishment was merciless: Solomon’s kingdom would be split and given away.
Idolatry scenes were a popular subject in Dutch 17th century history painting. In this 1644 canvas, Salomon Koninck (literally: Solomon King!) shows some typical accessories of idolatry scenes: a priest with a censer, a servant holding a sacrificial bull and a slave holding a sunshade. Koninck’s style is Rembrandtesque, with the kneeling king and his lady highlighted by an invisible source of light. While they worship the pagan god of the furnace, the periphery fills up with more wives.
The ridicule of idolatry such as Solomon’s underscored the political and religious justification of the (Protestant) Dutch Revolt against (Catholic) Spanish rule. The controversy between Protestants and Catholics on religious imagery was an important trigger of the 80 Years War between the two countries. But the story also admonished socially. Moralist writers warned their readers against the temptations of religiously suspect immigrant maidservants, looking for work in rich Dutch households. This was in line with the 1637 Dutch Authorized Bible version, which commented on Solomon’s foreign wives as ‘lower in stature than a housewife’.
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