 |
| Ferdinand Bol Pharoah's daughter finding Moses in the reed basket ca. 1660-63 oil on canvas Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
 |
| Ferdinand Bol Pharoah's daughter finding Moses in the reed basket ca. 1660-63 drawing Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
Between 1660 and 1663 Ferdinand Bol (1616-1680) painted five mural-sized canvases for the Utrecht salon of an enterprising bourgeoise named Jacoba Lampsin (1613/14-1667). Descendants of the original patron bequeathed the gigantic paintings to the Dutch state in 1892. All five were extensively restored and investigated in 2005-2006. As a result, Amsterdam University Press in 2012 published a magnificent book about them written by Margriet van Eikema Hommes: Art and Allegiance in the Dutch Golden Age : the Ambitions of a Wealthy Widow in a Painted Chamber by Ferdinand Bol. The canvases, in all their cumbersome grandeur, have never been housed at the Rijksmuseum, but instead are installed in a civic building called the Peace Palace at The Hague and at the Noordbrabants Museum, 's-Hertogenbosch.
"Because of their size – together they cover some 75 square meters – Bol's canvases occupy a unique place in Northern Netherlandish seventeenth century painting. These painted wall hangings are a rare example of a branch of the seventeenth century art of painting of which, although it once enjoyed great popularity, hardly anything remains today."
 |
| Ferdinand Bol King Cyrus handing over the treasure looted from the Temple of Jerusalem ca. 1660-63 oil on canvas Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
 |
| Ferdinand Bol Aeneas receiving a new set of armor from Venus ca. 1660-63 oil on canvas Rijksmuseum, Amseterdam |
 |
| Ferdinand Bol Abraham receiving the three angels ca. 1660-63 oil on canvas Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
 |
| Ferdinand Bol God the Father appearing to Abraham 1640s drawing Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
 |
| Ferdinand Bol The captain of God's army appearing to Joshua ca. 1660-63 oil on canvas Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
 |
| Ferdinand Bol The captain of God's army appearing to Joshua ca. 1640-44 drawing Getty Museum, Los Angeles |
 |
| Ferdinand Bol The captain of God's army appearing to Joshua ca. 1640-44 drawing Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
Below, four additional compositions in oil by Ferdinand Bol. These were not included in the Lampsin commission. Although created in much the same grandiloquent spirit, they were not executed on the same grandiloquent scale.
 |
| Ferdinand Bol Venus and Adonis ca. 1657-60 oil on canvas Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
 |
| Ferdinand Bol Leonard Winnincx and his wife Helena van Heuvel as Jason and Medea 1664 oil on canvas Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |
 |
| Ferdinand Bol Esther and Mordecai ca. 1650 oil on canvas Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |
 |
| Ferdinand Bol Banquet of Esther before 1670 wash drawing Morgan Library, New York |
"So the king and Haman came to banquet with Esther the queen. And the king said again unto Esther on the second day at the banquet of wine, What is thy petition, queen Esther? and it shall be granted thee: and what is thy request? Then Esther the queen answered and said, If I have found favour in thy sight, O king, and if it please the king, let my life be given me at my petition, and my people at my request: for we are sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be slain, and to perish."
– from the book of Esther, chapter 7 (Authorized Version, first published in 1611)
 |
| Ferdinand Bol Moses and Jethro 1655-56 oil on canvas Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |
 |
| Ferdinand Bol David's leavetaking from Jonathan ca. 1643-47 wash drawing Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |