03 — ARTWORK
King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba
- MEDIUM
- Panel, 84 x 79 cm
- TYPE
- Historical
PALETTE
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- FILE
- 1000 × 1066 px · JPEG
COMMENTARY
UNDERLINED TERMS ARE DEFINED IN THE GLOSSARY.
Solomon was the son of David and Bathsheba, and third king of united Israel; his wisdom was proverbial. Solomon's rein saw the construction of the Temple at Jerusalem.
The ostensible purpose of the visit of the Queen of Sheba was to satisfy her curiosity about the travellers' tales she had heard concerning his wisdom and the magnificence of his court. She came with a great camel train bearing gifts of spices, gold and precious stones. In return the king bestowed on her 'all she desired, whatever she asked, in addition to all he gave her of his royal bounty.'
In this panelTerm in painting for a support of wood, metal, or other rigid substance, as distinct from canvas. Until the adoption of canvas in the 15th century nearly all the movable paintings of Europe were executed on wood, and even up to the beginning of the 17th century it is probable that as much painting was done on the one support as on the other. Painters who worked on a small scale often used copper panels (Elsheimer is a leading example), and in the colonial art of South America copper and tin and even lead and zinc were used. On a larger scale, slate has occasionally been used as a support, notably by Rubens for his altarpiece for Sta Maria in Vallicella (the Chiesa Nuova) in Rome; the picture he originally painted was said to reflect the light unpleasantly and slate was used for the replacement to produce a more matt finish. For wood panels the Italian masters of the Renaissance preferred white poplar, while oak was the most common wood used in northern Europe. Many other types were used, however; analysis of the contents of art galleries has yielded a long list, including beech, cedar, chestnut, fir, larch, linden, mahogany, olive, and walnut. In the 20th century cedar, teak, and dark walnut are favourites, and modern painters have also used plywood, fibre-board, and other synthetic materials as supports. from the Heilspiegel AltarpieceA picture or sculpture that stands on or is set up behind an altar. The term reredos is used for an ornamental screen or partition, not directly attached to the altar table but affixed to the wall behind it. A diptych is an altarpiece consisting of two panels, a triptych one of three panels, and a polyptych one of four or more panels. From the 14th to 16th century, the altarpiece was one of the most important commissions in European art; it was through the altarpiece that some of the most decisive developments in painting and sculpture came about., Witz painted a gold background with filigree ornamentation and placed both his figures before it. The blue, red, green, and white of the clothing and the restrained ochre of the hands and faces may be the only colours, but they radiate light when set against the intense gold of the background, whose effect is increased still further by the elaborate inlay pattern. Witz recognized that an abstract gold background sharpened the contours of a form and made it almost tangible. <P> <TABLE ALIGN=LEFT CELLPADDING=5 BORDER=1 WIDTH=320 BGCOLOR="#99CCCC"> <TR VALIGN=MIDDLE><TD><IMG SRC="/support/gif/listen.gif" BORDER=0 VALIGN=MIDDLE> Suggested listening (streaming mp3, 3 minutes):<BR><A HREF="#" onClick="w=window.open ('/music1/18_cent/handel_solomon_sheba.html', 'newWin', 'scrollbars=yes,status=no,dependent=yes,screenX=0,screenY=0,width=350,height=350');w.opener=this;w.focus();return true"><B>George Frideric Handel: Solomon - The arrival of the Queen of Sheba</B></A> </TD></TR></TABLE>
CITE THIS RECORD — BIBTEX
@online{wga-r3c67e5e4d75213,
author = {Krén, Emil and Marx, Daniel},
title = {King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba by WITZ, Konrad},
organization = {{Web Gallery of Art}},
date = {2026-09-13},
url = {https://beta.wga.hu/artists/witz-konrad-r90a25e4a2faabb/king-solomon-and-the-queen-of-sheba-r3c67e5e4d75213},
urldate = {2026-09-13},
langid = {english}
}ACCESSED 2026-09-13. REPLACE THE AUTHOR FIELD WITH THE COMMENTARY AUTHOR WHERE ONE IS NAMED.
