The Legates of Alexander the Great Investing the Gardener Abdalonymus with the Insignia of the Kingship of Sidon

Support The single, horizontally grained plank of Spanish cedar (Cedrela odorata) is approx. 1 cm thick. The right edge has been trimmed, the left one partly. The reverse is bevelled on all sides.
Preparatory layers The single, warm, medium grey ground extends up to the edges of the support. It was applied with markedly horizontal brushwork, which is most clearly visible with infrared photography. The ground consists of (primarily translucent, some opaque) white pigment particles, light orangey earths and large black pigment particles.
Underdrawing No underdrawing could be detected with the naked eye or infrared photography.
Paint layers The paint extends up to the edges of the support. A thin, fluid, dark initial lay-in made with dilute transparent browns established the contours and modelling of the landscape, fortress walls, turrets and figures. This undermodelling has remained visible in many places, for example the flesh tones, where it serves as shadows of the final forms. The composition was built up from the back to the front and from dark to light, using some reserves. The castle turret in the far background, however, and many of the figures in the background and middle ground were almost completely applied over the sky and landscape. The illuminated flesh tones were composed of thin, blended light ochre-coloured and pink paints. Many adjustments (now visible to the naked eye) were made to the contours of the elements left in reserve in the final stage, for example the brownish-yellow garment worn by Abdalonymus, the second figure from the left. The upper layers are creamy and medium rich with visible fluid brushstrokes.
Gwen Tauber, 2022

Fair. Five short, medium and longer cracks run in the direction of the grain where the panel was trimmed on the left. Three of them were closed. A small part of the upper left corner of the support is lost. Small chip-losses are apparent along the trimmed edges. Much abrasion and also increased transparency can be found in all the thinly covered areas. Local alligator cracks are present in most lighter-coloured paints where these were applied over the dark underpaint, for instance above Abdalonymus’s raised hand. Numerous black crater-like holes and protrusions are visible throughout the paint surface, primarily in horizontal patterns. Stereomicroscopy showed profuse white craters and protrusions in all light areas.

…; ? lottery held by Jan de Bondt, Wijk bij Duurstede, 9 May 1649, no. 126 (‘Een stuck van Knipper synde ‘t’ principael van Addolonibus’’), estimated at fl. 100;¹¹F.D.O. Obreen, Archief voor Nederlandsche kunstgeschiedenis: Verzameling van meerendeels onuitgegeven berichten en mededeelingen betreffende Nederlandsche schilders, plaatsnijders, beeldhouwers, bouwmeesters, juweliers, goud- en zilverdrijvers [enz.], II, Rotterdam 1879-80, p. 89.…; collection Dr Abraham Bredius (1855-1946), The Hague, c. 1880;²²J. Saxton, Nicolaus Knupfer: An Original Artist: Monograph and Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings and Drawings, Doornspijk 2005, p. 147. by whom donated to the museum, 24 April 1888³³NHA, ARS, IS, inv. 168, no. 304 (24 April 1888); NHA, ARS, Kop., inv. 289, p. 180, no. 404 (24 April 1888).

ObjectNumber: SK-A-1458

Credit line: Gift of A. Bredius, The Hague

Nicolaes Knupfer was often highly creative in the choice of subjects for his history paintings, a number of which are based on rather obscure texts. The present theme of the gardener Abdalonymus invested with the insignia of the kingship of Sidon has rarely been depicted in art.⁷⁷The scene was identified as such in L. Mesnard, ‘Un tableau du peintre hollandais Nic. Knupfer’, La Chronique des arts et de la curiosité 1890, no. 6, p. 46. Given its unique nature, this is very probably the ‘piece by Knupfer, being the original of Abdalonymus’ that was raffled by Jan de Bondt at a lottery in Wijk bij Duurstede in May 1649 as one of the works with the highest estimates.⁸⁸For the Dutch description of the work in the lottery see Provenance.

The story is told by Quintus Curtius Rufus in his Historiae Alexandri Magni Macedonis, an important classical source for the life of Alexander the Great. In 1613 a Dutch translation was published by Adriaen Gerritsz in Delft as Hoog-beroemde historie van t’leven ende de daden van Alexander de Groote. In book IV there is a description of how the town of Sidon surrendered to Alexander, who allowed his friend and general Hephaestion to choose the new ruler. He offered the crown to two leading citizens with whom he was lodging, but they refused it, saying that the throne could only be occupied by someone of blue blood.⁹⁹Quintus Curtius Rufus, Historiae Alexandri Magni Macedonis, bk. IV, 15-23. Abdalonymus was a distant relative of the royal house of Sidon but because he was so honest he had been sidelined by the previous corrupt regime and was now living in poverty as a gardener on the city outskirts. The men found him there, weeding, and said: ‘These garments which you see in my hands […] must now replace these dirty rags of yours. Wash from your body its perpetual coating of mud and earth. You must now assume the disposition of a king and carry your characteristic moderation with you into the estate which you merit.’¹⁰¹⁰Translation from J. Yardley, The History of Alexander, London 1984, p. 52 (verse 22). The disbelieving Abdalonymus eventually accepted the purple and gold cloak that was hung around his shoulders as the sign of his new status.

The tablet with the word ‘Sidoon’ in the city wall removes all doubt that this is the event painted by Knupfer. The man on the right could be Hephaestion. Saxton suggested that because Abdalonymus was a model of refinement and humanity the tale is an admonition to be moderate in one’s behaviour, particularly if one is elevated to wealth from poverty.¹¹¹¹J. Saxton, Nicolaus Knupfer: An Original Artist: Monograph and Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings and Drawings, Doornspijk 2005, p. 61. Stories from Roman history were frequently depicted in the seventeenth century because of the moral example of the protagonists. Just as representations of Lucretia or Scipio served as exempla virtutis,¹²¹²On which see S.R. Golan, Scenes from Roman Republican History in Seventeenth Century Dutch Art: Exempla Virtutis for Public and Private Viewing, diss. University of Kansas 1994, passim. so the portrayal of Abdalonymus in Knupfer’s work encourage the viewer to pursue continentia.

A drawing of the same subject monogrammed by Knupfer may have been made in preparation for the painting.¹³¹³Germany, private collection; illustrated in J. Saxton, Nicolaus Knupfer: An Original Artist: Monograph and Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings and Drawings, Doornspijk 2005, no. D23. There is an annotation on the back of the sheet stating that it was bought from the artist’s estate on 10 April 1656. However, there are major differences between the two compositions, so the sketch was not an immediate preliminary study but should be seen as an experiment in establishing the correct psychological relationships between the figures. By elevating Abdalonymus from the kneeling position he has in the drawing Knupfer stresses not his humility but his regained dignity. The two men beside him humbly honour the new king.

The support is made from Cedrela odorata (Spanish cedar or cigar-box cedar), and since there is no dendrochronology for that wood it cannot be of help to determine when the panel was most probably ready for use. The muted palette and bright touches of colour in the clothing are typical of paintings by Knupfer assigned to the second half of the 1640s, but the obscure sequence of his works makes a more precise dating impossible. The theatrical gestures, the concern for the narrative power of the secondary figures, and the bowing man seen from the back are devices that Knupfer employed on other occasions to focus attention on the protagonist.¹⁴¹⁴See, for example, Christ before Herod, Budapest, Museum of Fine Arts; illustrated in J. Saxton, Nicolaus Knupfer: An Original Artist: Monograph and Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings and Drawings, Doornspijk 2005, no. 24, pl. VII. A similar composition with a diagonal dividing the picture surface in two is seen in a history piece in a private collection in The Hague.¹⁵¹⁵Illustrated in J. Saxton, Nicolaus Knupfer: An Original Artist: Monograph and Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings and Drawings, Doornspijk 2005, pl. XXIX. What is most striking, though, is that the artist was extraordinarily inventive and varied in the choice of subjects and designs of his history pieces, and that this one stands apart in his extant oeuvre.

Gerbrand Korevaar, 2022

See Key to abbreviations, Rijksmuseum painting catalogues and Acknowledgements

L. Mesnard, ‘Un tableau du peintre hollandais Nic. Knupfer’, La Chronique des arts et de la curiosité 1890, no. 6, p. 46; J.I. Kuznetzow, ‘Nikolaus Knupfer (1603?-1655)’, Oud Holland 88 (1974), pp. 169-219, esp. pp. 179, 197, no. 100; J. Saxton, Nicolaus Knupfer: An Original Artist: Monograph and Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings and Drawings, Doornspijk 2005, pp. 73, 61, 147-48, no. 53, with earlier literature

1891, pp. 94-95, no. 781a (as The Envoys of the Roman Populace Telling Cincinnatus that he Has Been Created Consul of Rome); 1903, p. 149, no. 1359 (as Delegates of the Roman Populace Informing Cincinnatus that he Has Been Awarded the Dignity of Consul); 1934, p. 156, no. 1359; 1960, p. 163, no. 1359; 1976, p. 323, no. A 1458

Gerbrand Korevaar, 2022, 'Nicolaes Knupfer, The Legates of Alexander the Great Investing the Gardener Abdalonymus with the Insignia of the Kingship of Sidon, c. 1645 - c. 1650', in J. Bikker (ed.), Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.12051