Jacob Willemsz. de Wet I (Haarlem c. 1610-1675)

Daniel slaying the dragon worshipped by the King of Babylon

Details

Jacob Willemsz. de Wet I (Haarlem c. 1610-1675)
Daniel slaying the dragon worshipped by the King of Babylon
signed 'J.D.Wet' (lower left)
oil on panel
21 x 29¼ in. (53.3 x 74.2 cm.)

Literature

W. Sumowski, Gemälde der Rembrandt-Schüler, Landau, 1983, VI, pp. 3750, 4119, no. 2496.

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Lot Essay

According to an addition to the Book of Daniel, King Astyages and the Babylonians worshipped a dragon. To prove the dragon's fallibility, Daniel vowed to kill him using only pitch, fat and hair. In the present scene, the King and his subjects look on expectantly as Daniel prepares to feed his concoction to the unsuspecting dragon. De Wet returned to this subject multiple times; another version is now in the Musée Thomas-Henry, Cherbourg (inv. MTH 2006.0.12). Sumowski dates the present work to around 1646 (loc. cit.).

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