Bible in art · 1 Kings

The Judgment of Solomon

Leonaert Bramer · 1640s
The Met, New York

Leonaert Bramer of Delft painted this panel in the 1640s. He had spent many years in Italy and was known at home for dark, crowded scenes lit by flickering light and painted with quick, loose strokes.

King Solomon, in a fur robe and turban with a small crown, sits on a high throne and points down. Below him a man grips a sword and holds up the living child, a woman kneels and stretches out her arm, and a small body lies on the floor. Courtiers and onlookers crowd the hall.

From the text

“Bring me a sword” (1 Kings 3:24)
The order to cut the living child in two (1 Kings 3:25)
The real mother pleading for her son’s life (1 Kings 3:26)
The dead child (1 Kings 3:21)

The artist’s own

Solomon in a fur-trimmed robe and turban, like an Eastern ruler
Guards in 17th-century breastplates
Onlookers watching from a window high in the wall

Details

Solomon

In a fur robe and turban with a small crown, he points down from his throne.

The living child

Held up by one arm.

The sword

A man in a white shirt grips the sword.

The mother

A kneeling woman stretches out her arm.

The dead child

A small body lies on the floor.

At the window

More faces watch from high in the wall.

Leonaert Bramer, Dutch, Delft 1596–1674 Delft. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (Gift of National Surety Company, 1911; acc. 11.73) · Oil on wood · Public Domain — The Met Open Access (CC0). The Met Collection API record: "isPublicDomain": true; The Met marks such works on its website "with the Creative Commons Zero (CC0) icon".

The verses

1 Kgs 3:16–28At that time two prostitutes came to the king and stood before him. One woman said, “Please, my lord, this woman and I live in the same house, and I gave birth while she was in the house. On the third day after I gave birth, this woman also had a baby. We were alone, with no one in the house but the two of us. During the night this woman’s son died because she rolled over on him. So she got up in the middle of the night and took my son from my side while I was asleep. She laid him in her bosom and put her dead son at my bosom. The next morning, when I got up to nurse my son, I discovered he was dead. But when I examined him, I realized that he was not the son I had borne.” “No,” said the other woman, “the living one is my son and the dead one is your son.” But the first woman insisted, “No, the dead one is yours and the living one is mine.” So they argued before the king. Then the king replied, “This woman says, ‘My son is alive and yours is dead,’ but that woman says, ‘No, your son is dead and mine is alive.’” The king continued, “Bring me a sword.” So they brought him a sword, and the king declared, “Cut the living child in two and give half to one and half to the other.” Then the woman whose son was alive spoke to the king because she yearned with compassion for her son. “Please, my lord,” she said, “give her the living baby. Do not kill him!” But the other woman said, “He will be neither mine nor yours. Cut him in two!” Then the king gave his ruling: “Give the living baby to the first woman. By no means should you kill him; she is his mother.” When all Israel heard of the judgment the king had given, they stood in awe of him, for they saw that the wisdom of God was in him to administer justice.

See it at the museum’s site