MMaxi Madeiraman

A young woman taking a bath, assisted by two servants. This is Bathsheba, a legendary beauty. Cornelis van Haarlem painted her in 1594. The story of the fair Bathsheba is told in the biblical Book of Samuel. One evening she was bathing in the garden. King David saw her from the roof of his palace and fell in love with her. All that is visible of the palace here is the contour behind the garden wall. The king is nowhere to be seen. The focus is on the three women in the foreground. The artist used Bathsheba's bath as a theme in which to show various facets of the female nude, monumental and at the same time as natural as possible.

Year 1594

Artist Cornelis Cornelisz. van Haarlem

The story of the Massacre of the Innocents is found in the Bible.
After the birth of Jesus, King Herod heard that a new king of the Jews had been born in Bethlehem.
Having no way to recognise the child, he ordered his soldiers to kill all the boys in Bethlehem younger than two.
Meanwhile, Mary and Joseph had already fled with the baby Jesus to Egypt. They remained there until after the death of Herod.
In 1590 Cornelis van Haarlem painted a blood-curdling picture of the Massacre of the Innocents.
The subject had never before been tackled on so large and ambitious a scale.

Artist Cornelis Cornelisz. van Haarlem

Year 1590