Saul and the Witch of Endor

Saul and the Witch of Endor

SK-A-668

• signature, upper left, on a banderole: ‘leest Regum j[...] ghescreven // [...] Saul tot tovery heeft gehev.. // Samuel te verwrecke qua. hij te sne.ven’
• signature, on the albarello: ‘MAL (Evil)’
• signature, on the witch’s cap: ‘pitonissa // Saulis’
• signature, on Samuel’s gravestone: ‘Sepulchu[.] // Samuelis’
• signature and date, lower centre on a cartellino: ‘Aº 1526 noveb. 29 // I. A.’
• signature, upper left, on a banderole: ‘Saul cu[m] duob [v]iris ignoto habitum endorem adit:[...] consulturus pythonem // sup evetu[...] belli Q [...] ei erat adusus philisteos [...]Porro aia [...] Samuelis iussu // numinis ad colloqium [?] elicit r [?] q [?] et regis et triu [?] liberou iteritu [?] pnutiat [?] i regu [...] // 28’

Fearing the outcome of a battle, Saul, king of the Israelites, consulted the fortune-telling witch of Endor. The prophecy came true: Saul lost the battle, but shortly before he was to be killed, he threw himself on his sword. His suicide – in the middle background – is a warning against witchcraft. In the foreground is a Witches’ Sabbath: the fortune-teller sits within a chalk circle, surrounded by other witches, satyrs, and imaginary figures.

painter: Jacob Cornelisz. van Oostsanen, Amsterdam

1526

olieverf op paneel

• height 85.5 cm x width 122.8 cm
• height 87 cm x width 121.6 cm
• height 104.2 cm x width 138.9 cm x thickness 5 cm

purchase 1879

Public domain

...; sale, Louis-Maximilien Beauvois (?-1796, Valenciennes), Valenciennes (Pillion), 19 May 1879, no. 1, as Jean-Walter van Assen, fl. 500, to the museum{Copy RKD; NHA, ARM, Kop, inv. 39, pp. 268-70, nos. 19, 23, 27 (31 May 1879); NHA, ARS, IS, inv. 161, no. 307 (3 June 1879).}

To refer to this object, please use the following persistent URL:

https://id.rijksmuseum.nl/200109197