A commander in a plumed helmet points from his horse.
Bible in art · Judges
Gideon Chooses His Soldiers
Antonio Tempesta · 1613
National Gallery of Art, Washington
Antonio Tempesta, a Florentine who worked in Rome, was famous for prints of battles, hunts and horses. This etching is plate 13 of his series of Old Testament battles; the NGA dates its sheet 1613. Its Latin title, cut off here, says that Gideon tests his soldiers by the way they drink.
Gideon, in a plumed helmet on a white horse, points to a soldier who drinks from his hand. Along the river others kneel and put their faces to the water. A huge army fills the far bank, with camels on the hill.
From the text
- The people brought down to the water (Judges 7:5)
- Men lapping from their hands, and men kneeling to drink (Judges 7:5–6)
- The camels of the camp beyond (Judges 7:12)
The artist’s own
- Gideon as a mounted general of Tempesta’s own day
- Banners, pikes and turbaned soldiers
- A wide river landscape with the armies drawn up
- The horses, Tempesta’s speciality
Details
Gideon
From the hand
A soldier lifts water to his mouth in his hand.
Kneeling to drink
Men kneel and put their faces down to the water.
Camels
Camels stand on the hill at the edge of the army.
The army
Rows of soldiers with spears and banners crowd the far bank.
Antonio Tempesta, Italian, 1555–1630. National Gallery of Art, Washington (Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund, 1974.55.30) · Etching · NGA Open Access: "Images of these works are available free of charge for any use, commercial or non-commercial, under Creative Commons Zero (CC0)." (NGA open data: published_images.csv openaccess = 1)