Lot 57: ANDREA CELESTI VENICE 1637 - 1712 QUEEN JEZEBEL BEING PUNISHED BY JEHU

oil on canvas, unframed

CATALOGUE NOTE

This episode is told in the second book of Kings (9: 30-37). Queen Jezebel, wife of Ahab, king of Israel, taunted the soldier Jehu and so he punished her by throwing her into the street, where she was trampled on by horses and devoured by a pack of dogs. Celesti painted this subject on another occasion, in a large canvas (240 by 150 cm.), executed in circa 1700-02 as part of a series of decorative canvases for Villa Bettoni at Bogliaco (see I. Marelli, Andrea Celesti 1637-1712, Brescia 2000, p. 175 ff., reproduced p. 179, fig. 46).

99 by 151.8 cm.; 39 by 59 3/4 in.