''Jeroboam Sacrificing to Idols'' (french: Jéroboam sacrifiant aux idoles) is a
history painting
History painting is a genre in painting defined by its subject matter rather than any artistic style or specific period. History paintings depict a moment in a narrative story, most often (but not exclusively) Greek and Roman mythology and Bible ...
by the French painter
Jean-Honoré Fragonard
Jean-Honoré Fragonard (; 5 April 1732
(birth/baptism certificate)
– 22 August 1806) was a French painter and printmaker whose late Rococo manner was distinguished by remarkable facility, exuberance, and hedonism. One of the most prolific ar ...
, in
oil on canvas. It won him the highly prestigious
Prix de Rome for painting on 26 August 1752, shortly after he turned 20 years old; this "precocious triumph" was even more remarkable as he had not received the usual training at the
Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture
The Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture (; en, "Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture") was founded in 1648 in Paris, France. It was the premier art institution of France during the latter part of the Ancien Régime until it was abol ...
. The painted surface measures . It was retained by the Académie until that institution was abolished in the
French Revolution
The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are considere ...
and is now part of the collection of the successor
Académie des Beaux-Arts.
Subject
The subject had been chosen by the judges of the competition, and was the unusual but dramatic
Old Testament
The Old Testament (often abbreviated OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew writings by the Israelites. The ...
subject of King
Jeroboam
Jeroboam I (; Hebrew: ''Yārŏḇə‘ām''; el, Ἱεροβοάμ, Hieroboám) was the first king of the northern Kingdom of Israel. The Hebrew Bible describes the reign of Jeroboam to have commenced following a revolt of the ten northern ...
in
1 Kings
The Book of Kings (, '' Sēfer Məlāḵīm'') is a book in the Hebrew Bible, found as two books (1–2 Kings) in the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. It concludes the Deuteronomistic history, a history of Israel also including the books ...
12:26–30 and 13:1–5. This lay well outside the range of light-hearted
Rococo
Rococo (, also ), less commonly Roccoco or Late Baroque, is an exceptionally ornamental and theatrical style of architecture, art and decoration which combines asymmetry, scrolling curves, gilding, white and pastel colours, sculpted moulding, ...
scenes of pastoral romance, flirtation and erotic mythology that Fragonard was already developing at the studio of
François Boucher
François Boucher ( , ; ; 29 September 1703 – 30 May 1770) was a French painter, draughtsman and etcher, who worked in the Rococo style. Boucher is known for his idyllic and voluptuous paintings on classical themes, decorative allegories ...
. The moment depicted is when Jeroboam, at right in the white turban, is about to sacrifice to pagan idols, when an unnamed prophet (standing, at left) intercedes:
When King Jeroboam heard what the man of God cried out against the altar at Bethel, he stretched out his hand from the altar and said, "Seize him!" But the hand he stretched out toward the man shrivelled up, so that he could not pull it back. Also, the altar was split apart and its ashes poured out according to the sign given by the man of God by the word of the Lord.
Style
Fragonard has adjusted his usual softer style to the requirements of history painting, less close to that of his master Boucher than those of
Carle van Loo
Carle or Carlé is a surname. Notable people with the name include:
*Andrea Cosima Carle, whose stage name is Maggie Mae (1960 – 2021), German singer
*Barbara Carle (born 1958), French-American poet, critic, translator and Italianist
*David Car ...
, with whom Fragonard was now to train, and
Jean François de Troy
Jean may refer to:
People
* Jean (female given name)
* Jean (male given name)
* Jean (surname)
Fictional characters
* Jean Grey, a Marvel Comics character
* Jean Valjean, fictional character in novel ''Les Misérables'' and its adaptations
* Je ...
, director of the
French Academy in Rome, who had just died there in January 1752.
Images using
infrared photography show numerous ''
pentimenti'', especially in the area of the split altar in the centre of the painting, with "its ashes poured out", an unusual challenge for the painter to visualize, over which Fragonard evidently took much trouble.
Exhibitions
Despite having had a single owner since it was painted, the painting is now very well-travelled, having been included in exhibitions in Rome (1904), Moscow and Leningrad (1978),
Kyoto
Kyoto (; Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in Japan. Located in the Kansai region on the island of Honshu, Kyoto forms a part of the Keihanshin metropolitan area along with Osaka and Kobe. , the ci ...
(1980,
Malibu (1982–83),
Bayonne
Bayonne (; eu, Baiona ; oc, label= Gascon, Baiona ; es, Bayona) is a city in Southwestern France near the Spanish border. It is a commune and one of two subprefectures in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department, in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine re ...
(1987), New York (1988), Tokyo (1989), Warsaw, Budapest and
Bucharest
Bucharest ( , ; ro, București ) is the capital and largest city of Romania, as well as its cultural, industrial, and financial centre. It is located in the southeast of the country, on the banks of the Dâmbovița River, less than north of ...
(2004–05), Barcelona and Madrid (2006–07), Oklahoma City,
Albuquerque, New Mexico
Albuquerque ( ; ), ; kee, Arawageeki; tow, Vakêêke; zun, Alo:ke:k'ya; apj, Gołgéeki'yé. abbreviated ABQ, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of New Mexico. Its nicknames, The Duke City and Burque, both reference its founding in ...
and
Naples, Florida
Naples is a city in Collier County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of the historical city (i.e. in the immediate vicinity of downtown Naples) was 19,115. Naples is a principal city of the Naples-Marco Island, Flori ...
(2014–15), as well as many in Paris.
Beaux-arts de Paris, l'école nationale supérieure, Catalogue entry
/ref>
; The subject by other artists
File:Claes Moeyaert - Sacrifice of Jeroboam - Google Art Project.jpg, Claes Moeyaert
Claes Corneliszoon Moeyaert or Nicolaes Moyaert or Mooyaert (1592–1655) was an authoritative Catholic Dutch painter. He followed Rembrandt in his use of red chalk.
Moeyart was born in Durgerdam. As a young man he is thought to have tr ...
, 1641
File:Gerbrand van den Eeckhout - Jeroboam's Sacrifice at Bethel - WGA7465.jpg, Gerbrand van den Eeckhout
Gerbrand van den Eeckhout (19 August 1621 – 29 September 1674) was a Dutch Golden Age painter and a favourite student of Rembrandt. He was also an etcher, an amateur poet, a collector and an adviser on art.
Biography
Gerbrand was born in A ...
, 1656, Hermitage Museum
The State Hermitage Museum ( rus, Государственный Эрмитаж, r=Gosudarstvennyj Ermitaž, p=ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)ɨj ɪrmʲɪˈtaʂ, links=no) is a museum of art and culture in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It is the list of ...
File:An old prophet denounces the proceedings at a lavish sacrifi Wellcome V0034323.jpg, 17th-century print, perhaps by one of the Galle family
Notes
References
*Rosenberg, Pierre, ''Fragonard'', exhibition catalogue, 1988: Galeries Nationales Du Grand Palais, Paris, September 24, 1987 – January 4, 1988, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, February 2 – May 8, 1988
online
{{Authority control
1752 paintings
Paintings by Jean-Honoré Fragonard
Paintings depicting Hebrew Bible themes
Prix de Rome for painting