The prophet pulls his cloak over his head and looks up at the sun.
Bible in art · Jonah
Jonah under the Gourd
Antonie Wierix · 1585
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
Antonie Wierix of Antwerp engraved this plate after a drawing by Maerten de Vos, as the fifth scene of a series on Jonah. This impression comes from the “Theatrum biblicum”, a picture Bible published in Amsterdam by Claes Jansz. Visscher in 1643.
Jonah sits on a rock above Nineveh, drawn as a great harbour city of domes, towers and ships. Over him a plant hung with large gourds climbs a wooden frame, but the sun beats down, and he pulls his cloak over his head against it.
From the text
- Jonah sitting east of the city in a shelter, waiting to see what would happen (Jonah 4:5)
- The plant that grew up to shade his head (Jonah 4:6)
- The sun beating down on Jonah’s head (Jonah 4:8)
The artist’s own
- Nineveh as a port of the 1500s with a domed church and sailing ships
- The plant drawn as a gourd vine with hanging fruit, a common reading of the word in the artist’s day
- A sun with a human face
- The name of God in Hebrew letters in a bright cloud, as many painters and engravers of the time wrote it
Details
Jonah
The plant
Big leaves and hanging gourds over a wooden frame.
The sun
A sun with a face shines through the leaves.
The name
Four Hebrew letters in a bright cloud, with rays falling down.
Nineveh
A great harbour city with domes, towers and ships.
Book and staff
A closed book and a staff lie beside him on the rock.
Antonie Wierix (II), Flemish, c. 1555/59–1604, after a drawing by Maerten de Vos. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (RP-P-OB-9375) · Engraving · Image: "Public Domain" (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/); object metadata: CC0 1.0 (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) — Rijksmuseum Linked Art record.