The Idolatry of King Solomon (I Kings 11:4-8)

Entry

The Old Testament story of King Solomon’s idolatry, in which the aged monarch, once renowned for his wisdom, is persuaded by his foreign wives and concubines to worship heathen gods, was tackled by a number of artists from Rembrandt’s circle. Willem de Poorter’s painting from around 1636-40 in the Rijksmuseum may well be the earliest of those treatments.⁶ Although horizontal rather than vertical in format and much larger,⁷ this 1644 canvas by Salomon Koninck incorporates the standard diagonal composition already present in De Poorter’s work. Both pictures show the king in the centre on an elevated platform surrounded by a few of his women, one of whom is seen from behind. Here she acts as a repoussoir on the right, and has been given a counterpart on the left in the form of a young man accompanying a sacrificial cow. In order to emphasize the exoticism of Solomon’s harem and the idols they worshipped, De Poorter included a couple of black females, whereas Koninck shows two young black servants, one assisting the priest and the other holding a parasol above a wife on the right.

The wall in the background has a vaulted opening which provides a view through to a large circular building, quite likely the Temple in Jerusalem that was raised under Solomon’s direction during his years of wisdom and glory, before he was corrupted by his foreign wives and concubines.⁸ Koninck probably derived this motif from a red chalk drawing of the subject by Rembrandt from around 1637.⁹ Even the lopsided supporting elements of the arch reflect the eccentric design of the interior in the sheet. In both works, the clarity and unity of the temple of the true religion are contrasted with the illogical and structurally unsound architecture of the heathen temple. One assumes that Koninck was also inspired by the Rembrandt prototype to depict the idol as a seated Venus accompanied by Amor.¹⁰ The round pedestal upon which the statue is mounted, as well as the curtained canopy above it, and possibly the king’s raised hands, suggest that Koninck also knew Philips Galle’s 1565 engraving of Solomon’s idolatry.¹¹

The strange container on the altar reproduces the famed gilded silver jug with lid created by Adam van Vianen in 1614, now in the Rijksmuseum.¹² Koninck included it in a number of his paintings (as did Pieter Lastman and Gerbrand van den Eeckhout), but in contrast to his other works, the organic, anti-classical style of the ewer, carried through in the altar and the priest’s headdress, may well have an iconographic function here; Koninck perhaps intended its convoluted and seemingly uncontrolled curves as a metaphor for the irrational worship of the heathen idol. At the very least, it serves to underline the diverse extraction of Solomon’s wives and concubines, and the gods they venerated.

As is typical of Koninck’s history paintings, sumptuous reds and bold yellow accents stand out in a predominantly subdued palette. Another hallmark of his style is the preoccupation with shimmering fabrics and highlights in the hair of the figures. With their small pointy noses, beady eyes and tiny mouths – not to mention their frizzy coiffures and the intensely blushing cheeks of the women – all appear to have the same genetic makeup; Solomon’s wives could easily pass as sisters, and the king himself could be mistaken for a twin brother of the priest. Also characteristic for the artist is the shaft of bright light that enters the further dark stage from the left. Koninck’s model for the pronounced chiaroscuro in this and other works was Rembrandt’s history pieces from the 1630s, such as Daniel and Cyrus before the Idol Bel of 1633.¹³ Middelkoop’s suggestion that here it is the admonishing light of God and that Solomon raises his hands in supplication to it is not very convincing.¹⁴ Not only is there no biblical basis for such an intervention, but no other pictures of the theme include such a scene, and it seems strange that God’s light should come from the left side of the composition where the idol and sacrificial cow are located rather than from the back, where the Jewish Temple is situated.

In his biography of Salomon Koninck in Het gulden cabinet of 1662, Cornelis de Bie records a work of this subject in the possession of a certain Geraerd Luycke,¹⁵ possibly the Amsterdam silk merchant Gerard (or Gerrit) Luijcken (c. 1616-1677) who originated from Zevenbergen. His ownership of Koninck’s Idolatry of King Solomon is not documented, but that he had a taste for paintings can be inferred from a 1636 transaction in which he borrowed a number of pictures from the art dealer and artist Elias Hoomis to decorate his house on the occasion of his marriage to Anna Pietersdr Bloemendael.¹⁶ Given his profession, Luijcken would have appreciated the attention Koninck paid to the rendering of fabrics in the present canvas.

Jonathan Bikker, 2023

See Key to abbreviations, Rijksmuseum painting catalogues and Acknowledgements