ESCUELA FLAMENCA, SIGLO XVIIEl Juicio del Rey... Lot n° 783

Oil on copper. 81 x 116,5 cm. This exceptional copper, of large size and good state of preservation, represents the famous passage from the First Book of Kings, which highlights the wisdom of King Solomon. The scene tells how two prostitutes who had given birth at the same time came before Solomon to settle a dispute over the living child that one had usurped from the other. One of the children had died and both women claimed to be the mother of the surviving child. To resolve the dilemma, Solomon ordered the living child to be split in two, giving one half to each woman. Faced with this order, one of the women gave up her share so that the child would remain alive, thus revealing herself to be the true mother. Peter Paul Rubens composed a Judgment of Solomon between 1615 and 1616, with the collaboration of his workshop, for the Brussels City Hall. The work was conceived as an allegory of Good Government. Unfortunately, the original painting disappeared in the fire of 1695, but a copy is preserved that Josias Rantzau offered to the king of Denmark around 1650. In addition, the work painted by Jan van der Hoecke in 1652, is currently in the Prado Museum. The copper that we present shows remarkable compositional changes with respect to the original. In one interior, the painter immortalizes the moment in which an executioner, sword in hand, prepares to sacrifice the child he is holding by the ankle. A dog sniffs the dead child in the watchful presence of Solomon, who is surrounded by a group of armed soldiers. This scene captures the tension of the moment with delicacy and the imminent revelation of the true mother, highlighting the cunning and wisdom of King Solomon.