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Solomon's Idolatry
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art. Free to download, adapt and use — no permission needed.
About this work
One can assume that the popularity of the earlier Power of Women series (on view nearby) inspired Lucas to produce another similar group. Also consisting of six subjects but somewhat smaller in size, this set reveals Lucas's increased ability to integrate figures more naturally into a setting. This scene, in which one of his wives persuades Solomon to worship idols, also demonstrates a desire to follow Albrecht Dürer's systematic style of hatching to produce tonal effects (see Dürer's The Large Passion: The Last Supper).
Cleveland Museum of Art’s own descriptionCredit lineSolomon's Idolatry, 1516–1519. Lucas van Leyden (Netherlandish, 1494–about 1533). Woodcut. The Cleveland Museum of Art, L. E. Holden Fund, 1960.156