Dramatic Scenery

Jephtah's Daughter (1859-60) by the French painter Edgar Degas (1834-1917). Degas painted only very few mytological or biblical subjests, he was much more interested in everyday life scenes. This painting is one of his early works when he returned from Italy where he was influenced by the great masters of traditional painting.

Farewell to Live

Jephthah's daughter (1866) one of the Bible illustrations by the French engraver Paul Gustave Doré (1832–1883).
The young girl is here celebrating and lamenting her upcoming sacrifice. A really strange story!

Cruel Sacrifice

Jephthah's daughter a medieval illumination from the so called Maciejowski Bible of the 13th century.

In this cruel scene Jephtah is sacrificing his daughter how he has vowed to God and there’s no Angel of Salvation coming to stop him.
Cruel story by the way, I never understood it.

Oriental Grief

Jephthah's Daughter (1876) by the French painter Édouard Debat-Ponsan (1847-1913).

With all the lascivious exotic women this is more an oriental than a biblical painting. Debat-Ponsan did also some oriental harem-paintings and stayed here near this popular subject.

Lament of Jephthah's Daughter

The Lament of Jephthah's Daughter by the Britisch Victorian painter George Elgar Hicks (1824-1914).

Hicks was specialized in romantic settings with a dramatic illumination. And in this way he painted here the poor child lamenting her sacrifice.

Pre-Raphaelite Jephthah

Jephthah (1867) by the English Pre-Raphaelite Painter John Everett Millais (1829–1896).

Millais focuses on the despair of the father. His daughter is seating on his lap. Gazing into the void she is trying to comfort her father. The whole picture is a mournfully scenery of desperation.

Nevertheless it’s interesting to observe the work which Millais invested in the exotic and historical details: the weapons, the furs, the music instruments and the dresses. So it’s a religious subject presented as a history painting.

Jephthah's Daughter

Jephtah was a judge of the Israelites. In this function he led an army against the Ammonistes. To win the decisive battle he made a vow to sacrifice whatever comes out of the doors of his house when he returned in peace from the people of Ammon.

But when the victorious Jephthah came home the first what he met was his daughter, his only child. Jephthah teared his clothes and cried in grief, but finally he fulfilled his oath and sacrificed his daughter, who had only asked for two months' grace, "that I may go down on the mountains ... and bewail my virginity".

The story of Jephtah caused a lot of religious discussions. Some argued, that human sacrifice is forbidden in the Bible and because of that Jephthah's Daughter was spared at the end. The other side is represented by Martin Luther who wrote: "Some affirm that he did not sacrifice her, but the text is clear enough!"

Fortunately that’s not our problem. We will have only a look at the artistic interpretation. There it may be interesting if Jephthah's Daughter is sacrificed or not, if an artist depicts more the poor child or the grief of the father. For example in one of the most famous adaptations in Händel’s oratoria "Jephtha" the sacrifice is stopped by an angel.

Illustration from 1807 from “Antiquities of the Jews” by Flavius Josephus