King David Receiving the Cistern Water of Bethlehem

1515–20

Master of the Antwerp Adoration Group (Netherlandish, active c. 1520)

This scene and that of King Solomon Receiving the Queen of Sheba are particularly fine examples of the decorative style practiced in Antwerp by a group of largely anonymous artists now dubbed Antwerp Mannerists. The paintings originally formed the interior of the wings of a folding triptych with the Adoration of the Magi as its center. Both show gifts being presented to a ruler on his throne and would have been understood as Old Testament prefigurations of the submission of the nations to Christ as king, the theme of the lost Adoration panel. They also provided an excuse for the artist to depict exotic costumes, architecture, and luxury goods—the hallmarks of the Antwerp Mannerist style.

Status: On View, Gallery 207
Department: Painting and Sculpture of Europe

Artist: Master of the Antwerp Adoration Group
Title: King David Receiving the Cistern Water of Bethlehem
Place: Belgium (Artist's nationality:)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 1505–1525
Medium: Oil on panel transferred to canvas
Dimensions: 73.5 × 27.5 cm (28 7/8 × 10 7/8 in.); Framed: 79.7 × 33.4 × 5.1 cm (31 3/8 × 13 1/8 × 2 in.)
Credit Line: Gift of Mrs. Charles L. Hutchinson
Reference Number: 1936.127
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/111671/manifest.json

Salomon Reinach, Répertoire de peintures du moyen âge et de la renaissance (1280–1580), vol. 2 (Paris: A. Burdin, 1907), 13, no. 1 (ill.; line drawing).
John La Farge, “Art in America: Two Works Formerly Attributed to Herri met de Bles,” Burlington Magazine 12 (1908): 387–88 (ill. opp. p. 387).
Bulletin of the Art Institute of Chicago (1936): 40.
“A Tour of the World of Art in 150 Masterpieces,” Masterpieces 1 (1950), p. 61 (ill. 1936.126).
The Art Institute of Chicago, Paintings in The Art Institute of Chicago: A Catalogue of the Picture Collection (Chicago: Art Institute, 1961), 300.
Giovanni Carandente, Collections d’Italie, Répertoire 3 (Brussels: Centre national de recherches “Primitifs flamands”, 1968), 14.
Peter van den Brink, in Jochen Sander, Gold, Weihrauch und Myrrhe: Die “von Grootesche Anbetung der Heiligen Drei Könige,” exh. cat. (Frankfurt: Städelsches Kunstinstitut: Städtische Galerie, 2001), 58, 60–61 (ill.).
Martha Wolff, “Hebrew Kings and Antwerp Mannerists,” in Collected Opinions: Essays on Netherlandish Art in Honor of Alfred Bader, ed. Volker Manuth and Axel Rüger (London: Paul Holberton, 2004), 279–93, figs. 1, 5–6.
Martha Wolff in Martha Wolff et al., Northern European and Spanish Paintings before 1600 in the Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago; New Haven: Yale University Press, 2008), 129-35, ill.
Celia Hilliard, “‘The Prime Mover’: Charles L. Hutchinson and the Making of the Art Institute of Chicago,” Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies 36, no. 1 (2010): 43, 89, fig. 11.
Alison McQueen, From Renaissance to Rodin: Celebrating the Tanenbaum Gift, exh. cat. (Toronto: Joseph M. Tanenbaum, 2012), 30, under nos. 4 and 5.

Durand-Ruel, Paris, by 1880/82 [Durand-Ruel stockbook for these years; letter from Caroline Durand-Ruel Godfroy, Oct. 19, 1999, in curatorial file]; sold to Charles L. Hutchinson (d. 1924), Chicago, May 8, 1890 [shipped to Chicago on July 16, 1890, Art Institute Archive]; by descent to his widow, Frances Kinsley Hutchinson (d. 1936), Chicago; bequeathed to the Art Institute, 1936.

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King David Receiving the Cistern Water of Bethlehem

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

Learn more.