He stands calmly, a halo of rays around his head.
Bible in art · Matthew
The Disciples Pick Grain on the Sabbath
Gustave Doré · 1866 (designs for La Sainte Bible, Tours); this printing 1873–1874
National Library of Poland, Warsaw
Pannemaker and Doms engraved this plate; their joint signature is at the lower right. Doré builds the picture on one gesture: a pointing finger aimed across the sheet, from the accusers at the right to the disciples among the stalks at the left.
Jesus stands in the middle with a radiant halo, calm, one hand at his chest and the other held out toward his disciples. They stand in tall wheat, one bending to pick. A man in a turban leans in and points at them; palms rise behind.
From the text
- “His disciples were hungry and began to pick the heads of grain and eat them” (Matthew 12:1)
- “Look, Your disciples are doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath” (Matthew 12:2)
- Jesus answers by recalling how David ate the consecrated bread (Matthew 12:3–4)
The artist’s own
- Palm trees beside the field
- The Pharisees in turbans and striped mantles
- A radiant halo around Jesus’s head
Details
Jesus
The pointing finger
A man in a turban points at the disciples.
A disciple
He bends down among the stalks.
The wheat
Tall ears of grain fill the lower left corner.
Gustave Doré, French, 1832–1883. National Library of Poland (Biblioteka Narodowa), Warsaw — «Pismo Święte Starego i Nowego Testamentu», vol. 2, Warsaw: M. Glücksberg, 1874 (acc. 75.267 A) · Wood engraving after Gustave Doré’s design · National Library of Poland (Polona): the record of the volume gives the licence «Domena Publiczna» (Public Domain), «copyrightProtected»: false; the scan was uploaded to Wikimedia Commons by the library itself («Polona Upload», GLAM-Wiki partnership: “This file was uploaded to Wikimedia Commons as part of a GLAM-Wiki partnership between the National Library of Poland and Wikimedia Polska”), linking its Polona record.