The Levite at Gibeah

Niederländische Malerei 1625–1644, early 1640s

Four people, a dog, and a donkey are gathered next to a copse of trees and in front of a run-down town in the background in this horizontal painting. All the people have pale skin. To the left, a barefoot man with a long gray beard and a fur-trimmed cap stands holding a tool in one hand and his other extended toward the other people. He wears a loose white shirt, and a dagger hangs from the waist of his tan, knee-length pants. A brown and white dog sniffs, with head lowered, one of the man’s bare feet. The man’s face is heavily lined and he looks at the second man and a woman in the lower right quadrant of the painting with deep-set eyes. There, a man wearing a harvest-yellow robe under a red cape and a feathered, jeweled turban sits on a rock. He looks back at the first with his head resting in one hand and his other hand held up. This second man has chin-length, wavy brown hair and a dark blond mustache and thin beard. A rosette or other object is tied at his waist, and the hilt of a sword is visible behind his hip. The woman sits on the ground next to him, one arm draped over his lap. She wears a gray headscarf and a teal cloak over a golden yellow dress. The thumb on her other hand is hooked through the red, studded collar of a tiny gray dog in her lap. The dog bares its teeth at the first man. A wooden casket and a basket holding cloth and a jug are just behind the woman. Behind that are two donkeys and the fourth person, a clean-shaven man who peers over the donkeys’ backs at the seated man. Trees to the right grow up around a mostly hidden structure. Grasses and plants grow along the ruined rooflines of the town behind the first man. A bank of khaki-brown and carnation-pink clouds billow up in the sky above, which deepens from pale blue along the top of the canvas to pale petal pink along the horizon.
Artist
Niederländische Malerei 1625–1644
Date
early 1640s
Type
Painting
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
96.5 × 121.9 cm
Collection
National Gallery of Art, Washington
Licence
Public domain, CC0

Image description

Four people, a dog, and a donkey are gathered next to a copse of trees and in front of a run-down town in the background in this horizontal painting. All the people have pale skin. To the left, a barefoot man with a long gray beard and a fur-trimmed cap stands holding a tool in one hand and his other extended toward the other people. He wears a loose white shirt, and a dagger hangs from the waist of his tan, knee-length pants. A brown and white dog sniffs, with head lowered, one of the man’s bare feet. The man’s face is heavily lined and he looks at the second man and a woman in the lower right quadrant of the painting with deep-set eyes. There, a man wearing a harvest-yellow robe under a red cape and a feathered, jeweled turban sits on a rock. He looks back at the first with his head resting in one hand and his other hand held up. This second man has chin-length, wavy brown hair and a dark blond mustache and thin beard. A rosette or other object is tied at his waist, and the hilt of a sword is visible behind his hip. The woman sits on the ground next to him, one arm draped over his lap. She wears a gray headscarf and a teal cloak over a golden yellow dress. The thumb on her other hand is hooked through the red, studded collar of a tiny gray dog in her lap. The dog bares its teeth at the first man. A wooden casket and a basket holding cloth and a jug are just behind the woman. Behind that are two donkeys and the fourth person, a clean-shaven man who peers over the donkeys’ backs at the seated man. Trees to the right grow up around a mostly hidden structure. Grasses and plants grow along the ruined rooflines of the town behind the first man. A bank of khaki-brown and carnation-pink clouds billow up in the sky above, which deepens from pale blue along the top of the canvas to pale petal pink along the horizon.

Niederländische Malerei 1625–1644