Cabinet Decorated with Episodes from the Old Testament

Entry

This elaborately decorated cabinet displays twenty-three scenes from the Old Testament painted on marble supports 5 mm thick and shaped to the appropriate openings; they are surrounded by filigree framing elements which only slightly overlap the marble.

The individual subjects and measurements are as follows: on the fronton, Aaron in the Tabernacle (Exodus 29:5-6), arched top, 19.5 x 11.5 cm. The portico: on the left door, obverse, the Adoration of the Golden Calf with Moses Holding the Tablets of the Law and Joshua nearby (Exodus 32:1-18), arched top, 23.5 x 13.5 cm; on the right door, obverse, Moses and Aaron before the Brazen Serpent in the Camp of the Israelites (Numbers 21:7-9), arched top, 23.5 x 13.5 cm. Below the left door: God Commanding Noah to Enter the Ark (Genesis 7:1), rectangular, 6.5 x 13.5 cm; below the right door: The Token of God’s Covenant Appearing to Noah (Genesis 9:11-16), rectangular, 6.5 x 13.5 cm. Above the doors, God Appearing to Moses in a ‘Thick Cloud’ (Exodus 19:9), oval, 5.7 x 13.9. On the reverse of both doors, God Creating the Fish, Birds and Beasts (Genesis 1:21-25), gabled tops, 14.5 x 9 cm and 14.5 x 11 cm.

Left-hand range of drawers,¹ from the top: Judah and Tamar (Genesis 3:12-18), octagonal, 7 x 22 cm; The Tenth Plague of Egypt, the Death of the Firstborn (Exodus 11:5-6), octagonal, 7.5 x 22 cm; Moses’s Spies Returning from Canaan (Numbers 13:17-23), octagonal, 7.5 x 22 cm; Abraham’s Servant Meets Rebekah at the Well (Genesis 24:10-18), octagonal, 7.5 x 22 cm. Left-hand double drawer, Lot and his Daughters (Genesis 19:30-32), rectangular, 5.5 x 19.5 cm, and God Appearing to Moses in the Burning Bush (Exodus 3:2), rectangular, 6 x 19.5 cm. Right-hand range of drawers,² from the top: The Angel of the Lord Barring the Way to Balaam’s Ass (Numbers 22:1-35), octagonal, 7.5 x 22 cm; The Finding of Moses (Exodus 2:5-9), octagonal, 7.5 x 22 cm; Abraham and Melchizedek (Genesis 14:18-19), octagonal, 7.5 x 22 cm;³ Esau Selling his Birthright (Genesis 25:29-34), octagonal, 7.5 x 22 cm. Right-hand double drawer, left, The Angel Appearing to Hagar (Genesis 21:14-19), rectangular, 6 x 19.5 cm, and Simeon and Levi Slay Shechem with Hamor and Dinah Looking on (Genesis 34:25-26), rectangular, 6 x 19.5 cm.

Beneath the apron of the stand: Adam, Eve and Abel (Genesis 4:1), rectangular, 4.5 x 16.5 cm; Moses and Joshua before the Camp of the Israelites (Exodus 32:17-18), rectangular, 5 x 16.5 cm;⁴ Cain Slaying Abel (Genesis 4:8), rectangular, 4.5 x 16.5 cm.

Fabri has identified the prototypes on which the majority of scenes were based as engravings by Pieter Hendricksz Schut (1618/1619-1660/1680) after Matthäus Merian I’s (1593-1650) illustrated Bibles published by Nicolaes Visscher in Amsterdam in 1658 and 1682,⁵ of which the latter has been consulted for this entry.⁶ The figure of God and the (?) stork on the reverse of the right-hand door are copied from the print by Antonio Tempesta (1555-1630), The Creation of the World, in the 1613 edition of Ovid’s Metamorphoses;⁷ the sources for the Adoration of the Golden Calf on the obverse of the left-hand door, and for the Simon and Levi Slay Schechem have yet to be identified. For the most part, the prototypes are by no means followed exactly, for instance the landscape backgrounds are often greatly simplified and in some cases the format is altered.⁸

Key details are omitted, for instance: the animals going into the ark in God Commanding Noah to Enter the Ark,⁹ the shoe and crook in God Appearing to Moses in the Burning Bush,¹⁰ Cain in Adam, Eve and Abel,¹¹ where the sheep is also barely recognizable, and the tablets of the law held by Moses in Joshua and Moses before the Camp of the Israelites,¹² in which the camp itself also has been omitted – maybe because this was the subject of the painting on the obverse of the left-hand door.

Baarsen has pointed out that the cabinetmaker’s intention was to create an overall impression;¹³ this is borne out by the poor handling of the paintings, which is schematic at best and does not warrant close inspection. The two scenes depicting Noah,¹⁴ the Adam, Eve and Abel¹⁵ and Cain Slaying Abel,¹⁶ are particularly badly handled and may be the work of a second hand.

References to cabinets decorated with paintings on marble occur in documents of the Antwerp dealer Musson and Forchondt from 1671 to 1689,¹⁷ in the latter year in addition four gilt ‘moors’ (presumably standing figures) are described in association with them.¹⁸ These archival references provide a timescale for a dating of the present cabinet. Fabri dates a very similar and related cabinet in the Plantin-Moretus Museum, Antwerp, after 1659,¹⁹ while Baarsen dates the Rijksmuseum cabinet circa 1680-90.²⁰ Fabri²¹ associates the journeyman painter Van Neeck (also spelt Neck and Neek) – who is not listed in the records of the Antwerp guild of St Luke – with the execution of the paintings. He is mentioned as having painted on marble supports for cabinets in invoices of 1675, 1676, and 1679.²² The earliest reference to him is of 1665 when he lived in the Hoogstraat, Antwerp.²³ In an account submitted by the cabinetmaker Michiel Verbiest (active 1648-c. 1689 or later) of 1679, Van Neeck was paid fl. 22 for paintings for two cabinets,²⁴ while the marble supports were supplied by the sculptor Norbertus van den Eynde (1620-1674).²⁵

The subjects of the paintings in the Plantin-Moretus Museum cabinet are also taken from early books of the Old Testament and derive from designs by Matthäus Merian I.²⁶ They are very probably by the same hand as that which executed the majority of the paintings in the present cabinet. Baarsen suggests that these cabinets may have been made as pendants²⁷ for the Spanish market.²⁸ Only six other comparable cabinets are extant.²⁹

Gregory Martin, 2022