Homage To Rembrandt

Homage To Rembrandt: Bathsheba (2001) by the American painter Patricia Watwood (born 1971). Here the subject is not any more the story of the Old Testament but art history itself.

Bathsheba in the Shower

Susan Hayward bathing in the 1951 film David and Bathsheba.

Medieval Bathsheba

Bathsheba in a medieval illuminated manuscript.

Cool stylish Bathsheba

Bathsheba (1570) by the Italian mannerist painter Giovan Battista Naldini (1537-1591). It’s a cool elegant reduction on the essentials.

Neoclassicist Bathsheba

Bathsheba (1820-25) by the German painter Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld (1794-1872). Despite Schnorr von Carolsfeld is best known as a member of the Nazarene brotherhood this Bathsheba is a typical neoclassicist painting.

Kind of Bathsheba

Bathsheba (1875-77) by the French painter Paul Cézanne (1839-1906).
Cézanne painted various versions of Bathsheba. I think, it was a good excuse to paint a nude in open-air. Here she has a servant, indicating that she’s probably bathsheba, in the background is a temple indicating the ancient world. Only king David on his balcony is missing.

Showing Boobs

Bathsheba by the Flemish Baroque painter Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640)

Maybe that it’s a typical Bathsheba painting: She with her servants, and in the distance king David on the balcony. But there’s a little more. The way how she’s exhibiting boobs and legs goes way further. And last not least was the little dog a symbol for prostitution. So Rubens left no doubt, that Bathsheba used all her tricks to seduce king David.

Blond Beauty

Bathsheba (1720) by the Italian painter Sebastiano Ricci (1659-1734).

Another version of Bathsheba. Here Ricci shows a wider environment. An impressive palace, numerous servants, and in the distance king David peeping. Bathsheba is a typical European blond baroque beauty.

Medieval Nude

This Bathsheba is from a medieval illuminated manuscript.

It contains already all important ingredients of this subject: A beautiful nude posing, two servants indicating a rich lady and king David peeping on his balcony.

King David’s Letter

Bathsheba receiving King David’s letter (c. 1659) by the Dutch painter Jan Steen (c.1626–1679). Steen shows here a typical Dutch bourgeois woman who shows triumphing king David’s letter, meaning that she will have success with her plan.

Rococo Bathsheba

Bathsheba by the Italian painter Sebastiano Ricci (1659-1734).

Ricci depicted here a lazy rococo court lady with her maidservants taking care of her beautiful body. Bathsheba is probably aware of King David on his balcony. She’s a kind of Madame de Pompadour who wants to become queen in seducing the king.

Romantic Bathsheba

Bathsheba at her bath (1834) by the Italian painter Francesco Hayez (1791-1882). The smooth light and gestures, the exotic costumes and the fairy tale trees all in all a typical romantic painting.
Funny King David wearing his crown in the background.

Dutch Bathsheba

Jan Steen (c.1626–1679) was a Dutch genre painter of the Dutch Golden Age. He depicts here how Bathsheba receives the letter from King David. Despite it’s one of the relatively few paintings not showing the typical bathing scene with King David peeping it shows Bathsheba doing her toilet – probably she had not much more to do.

More interesting is therefore to compare the painting with another one depicting a normal Dutch doing her toilet.

The similarities are obvious, only that the biblical Bathsheba has more luxury, some handmaidens and shows more nudeness.

Modern Bathsheba

Bathsheba (1875-77) by the French painter Paul Cézanne (1839-1906).

Cézanne is considered as a Post-Impressionist painter and a kind of bridge between Impressionism and modern art like Cubism. So it’s interesting how he treated here the old traditional subject, which so many artists had depicted before.

There is the nude Bathsheba exposing her body to the sun or to King David, who cannot be seen. But there is the maidservant, probably as a kind of label that this is Bathsheba. Different to nearly all of his colleagues Cézanne refrains from the cheap exploitation of the nude body. He reduces Bathsheba to colour and finally to an icon.

Mannerist Bathsheba

Bathsheba by the Italian painter Giovan Battista Naldini (1537-1591).

In some way it’s a perfect cool painting, much more drawing than painting. There are Bathsheba and her handmaidens all dressed in Roman fashion. The architecture is Roman as well, or at least what artists in the 17th century thought of Roman architecture. In the background there is King David on the balcony.

As I said: the arrangement is perfect like the painting.

Medieval Bathsheba

This still medieval Bathsheba dates from about 1485 and is by the Dutch Renaissance painter Hans Memling (c.1435-1494).

Despite its age there are already all important persons present. The nude seductive Bathsheba, a maidservant and king David peeping on his balcony.
Interesting may be that Memling doesn’t make any effort to give the painting a historical or oriental touch. The clothes and the furniture are pure 15th century Dutch.

Bathsheba and Servants

Bathsheba (1594) by the Dutch painter Cornelis Corneliszoon van Haarlem (1562-1638).

Corneliszoon van Haarlem was one of the leading Northern Mannerist artists, and with this painting he is showing what he’s able to. There’s not only one nude Bathsheba, there is nearly an entire harem to be seen. The bodies are perfect and the artist confronts the paleness of two with the dark exotic skin of Bathsheba’s black maiden.

A Perfect Nude

David und Bathsheba (1562) by the Flemish manierist painter Jan Massys (c. 1509-1575).

Massys was best known for the sensuality of his nude paintings. Here Bathsheba and David are shown in a typical European courtly scene – besides from Bathsheba’s nudeness. The really interesting thing about the painting is that David appears two times: in the back on the balcony and in front with Bathsheba. That’s still very medieval, to unite on one image different stages of a story.

Bathsheba and David

Bathsheba was the beautiful wife of Uriah a Hittite mercenary in the service of King David. While her husband was in the field fighting the Ammonites, Bathsheba was watched by David from the rooftop of his palace how she was taking her ritual bath. Impressed by her beauty the king immediately ordered her to come to his palace.

When Bathsheba later became pregnant David summoned Uriah from the army in the hope that he would sleep with his wife and think the child was his own. But because there was an ancient rule that officers shouldn’t sleep with their women while the troops remained in the field, Uriah stayed with the palace troops.

Unable to resolve the problem this way David sent Uriah back to the army with a secret letter for his commanding general. In this letter David ordered that Uriah should be abandoned in the battle, so that he would be killed by the enemy. And so it happened.

Later the child of Bathsheba and David died because it was the result of a sin (always the wrong have to pay). But anyhow Bathsheba became queen and hat another child of David, the later mighty King Salomon.

It’s clear that David is a sinner. He betrayed a true soldier and sent him into death only to satisfy his lust. Not so easy to judge is the role of Bathsheba. Sure she had to obey the king. But there is to suspect that she wanted to be watched by David while she was bathing, that finally she seduced him and not vice versa. And if we are viewing the paintings about that story it’s easy to see that many artists had the same opinion.

This is a late medieval book illumination by the French painter Jean Bourdichon (1457-1521). It already shows the characteristics of the typical Bathsheba paintings: a naked woman bathing and King David (with the crown) on his balcony.

Anytime when you will see in a museum a naked bather and somebody on a rooftop or a balcony watching it’s probably Bathsheba.