A crowned king on a wooden throne.
Bible in art · 1 Kings
Solomon and the Queen of Sheba; A Messenger Sees Solomon (Ms. 33, fol. 207, from the Weltchronik)
Unknown painter, Regensburg · about 1400–1410
Getty Center, Los Angeles
From the Regensburg Weltchronik of about 1400–1410. The chronicle adds stories of its own around the Bible; here the painter shows the queen of Sheba’s visit.
Solomon, crowned and white-bearded, sits on a wooden throne and holds a small gift. The queen stands before him in a green mantle lined with fur, her hand raised as she speaks.
From the text
- The queen comes to test Solomon (1 Kings 10:1)
- She speaks to him all that was on her mind (1 Kings 10:2)
The artist’s own
- The queen in the fur-lined mantle of a German noblewoman
- Red garments hanging behind the throne
Details
Solomon
The queen
She stands in a green mantle and raises a hand.
The gift
The king holds a small gold object.
The verse
A line of German verse runs above.
Unknown illuminator, Regensburg; text by Rudolf von Ems (Austrian, about 1200–1254). The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles (Ms. 33 (88.MP.70), fol. 207) · Tempera colors, gold, silver paint, and ink · Images provided here are believed to be in the public domain and are available under CC0 through Getty’s Open Content Program. (Getty record: "No Copyright", http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)