Elisha Cursing the Children of Bethel Who Are Being Devoured by the Bears

This extensive landscape portrays an obscure and violent episode from the life of the prophet Elisha. As engravings grew in popularity, engravers sought to satisfy specific market demands. Nicolaes de Bruyn chose to engrave in the style of an earlier Dutch engraver, Lucas van Leyden. De Bruyn’s delicate, atmospheric style, composed of straight (not swelled) lines, appealed to a specific market of Lucas’s admirers. However, the size of De Bruyn’s engravings was something new. Such large formats were often painted over with watercolors and displayed as substitutes for paintings.

A horizontal engraving in black ink depicts a vast landscape framed by twisting, leafy trees. In the foreground, a robed man with light skin tone gestures toward bears attacking children, while others flee over a bridge. A sprawling valley beyond holds a village and a craggy hill crowned with ruins. Fine, dense hatching defines the textured foliage. A panel of Latin text at the bottom right grounds the dramatic scene within a meticulously rendered world.

Elisha Cursing the Children of Bethel Who Are Being Devoured by the Bears

1602

Nicolaes de Bruyn, Gillis van Coninxloo

(Netherlandish, 1571–1656), (Netherlandish, 1544–1607)

Netherlands

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