The Meeting of Abraham and Melchizedek
John Theodore Heins, the elder (Germany c.1697 - Norwich 1756)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
1717 - 1756
Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
755 x 1480 mm
Place of origin
England
Order this imageCollection
Felbrigg, Norfolk
NT 1401284
Caption
The main group is more or less a faithful copy, in reverse, of Rubens’s picture of the same subject in the Museum at Caen. It must have been copied from a print, but the page and hose at the right may have been copied from another picture, or may have been an invention on the part of the artist. Despite the misleading inscription, this shows the episode in the Bible (the book of Genesis) when the priest-king of Salem blessed the victorious Abraham and brought him bread and wine, which was later regarded as a prefiguration of the Eucharist.
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, The Meeting of Abraham and Melchizedek by John Theodore Heins the elder (Germany 1697 – Norwich 1756), signed 'Heins Pinxt' and inscribed 'David and Ahimelech/I Samuel'. Two soldiers, one dressed in a red robe with a plumed helmet, with an accompanying grey horse and stable boy, approach a group of five civilians offering bread and liquid from large urns. The elder from this group is dressed in a grey cloak with an ermine hood over a red robe with gold trimmings. A copy, in reverse, of Rubens' Abraham and Melchizedek in the Museum at Caen. The High Priest of Salem brought forth bread and wine to greet and bless Abraham after he had revenged the defeat of Sodom. It was later regarded as a prefiguration of the Eucharist (Genesis, 14: 18-20)
Provenance
Part of the Windham Collection. The hall and contents were bequeathed to the National Trust in 1969 by Robert Wyndham Ketton-Cremer (1906-1969).
Credit line
Felbrigg Hall, The Windham Collection (National Trust)
Marks and inscriptions
David and Ahimelich
Makers and roles
John Theodore Heins, the elder (Germany c.1697 - Norwich 1756) , publisher