The Judgement of Solomon

Download3000 × 2430 px View on a wall Edit

Artist: Peter Paul Rubens (Flemish, 1577–1640)
Medium: Oil on canvas
Size: 234 × 303 cm
Museum: SMK – National Gallery of Denmark
Rights: Public Domain Mark

An executioner holds the child's ankle, dangling it upside-down. He holds an axe in the other hand, drawing it back in preparation for delivering the fatal blow that will cleave the child in twain. King Solomon is seated on his throne high above the dramatic scene, from where he is expected to decide the child's fate. The painting shows a scene from the Book of Kings in the Bible, relating the story of two prostitutes who shared a house and had both given birth to a boy around the same time. One of the children died shortly after being born, and both women then claimed the living child as their own.

The wise and just king must decide the child's fate. But what will he decide? The composition seems to hint at his decision. The painting has a background of cool, almost icy colours and a foreground of warm, glowing nuances. The woman with the true, warm love of the child is the woman in the foreground, and so she wins the right to the whole child! The child's role in this painting is akin to that of a parable demonstrating that "thou shalt not covet anything that is thy neighbour's", in this case a living child that rightfully belongs to another woman.