FERDINAND BOL
1616-1680
93 The Messenger of God
Appearing to Joshua
Pen and brown ink, brown and gray wash, and red,
white, and black chalk; H: 27.1 cm (lo^11 /^ in.); W: 19.5
cm (7"/loin.)
87.00.8 1
MARKS AND INSCRIPTIONS! None.
PROVENANCE: Sale, Sotheby's, Amsterdam, November
18 , 1985, lot 73 A; art market, London.
EXHIBITIONS: None.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: None.
THIS DRAWING APPEARED IN A 1985 SOTHEBY'S SALE
with an attribution to Bol advanced by W. Sumowski,
who pointed out that the same figure appears in a com-
plete version of the composition in the Rijksprentenka-
binet, Amsterdam (inv. 1930-37), which he dated to the
early IÓ4OS.^1 The subject is taken from Joshua 5:13, in
which Joshua, outside the city of Jericho, "lifted up his
eyes and saw a man standing over against him, holding
a drawn sword." The appearance of this figure, who
identifies himself as the messenger of the host of the
Lord, precedes God's instruction to Joshua to order his
troops to march around the city in order to bring down
its walls.
The sketchier execution of the Amsterdam drawing
indicates that it preceded the present example, in which
Bol worked out the figure of the messenger in greater
detail, transforming it from a prophetlike figure into one
of supernatural dimensions. Critical to this effect is the
messenger's emission of a heavenly aureole that pene-
trates the surrounding shadows, rendered by the tones of
gray wash intermingling with the white paper under-
neath. The artist developed the composition further in
another drawing^2 in which the messenger's figure bears
many similarities to that in the Museum's study. Bol's
painting of this subject of circa 1656 (The Hague, Vre-
despaleis)^3 is only marginally dependent on the earlier
drawings.1. Drawings of the Rembrandt School (New York, 1979), vol. i,
no. I96x. The present drawing will be included in Sumowski's
supplementary volume 12 (forthcoming).
2. Netherlandish and Italianate Old Master Drawings, exh. cat.
(Bob P. Haboldt and Co., New York, 1990), no. 9.- A. Blankert, Ferdinand Bol (1616-1680): Rembrandt's Pupil
(Doornspijk, 1982), p. 94, no. 10, pi. 39.
22O DUTCH SCHOOL -BOL