The Magnanimity of Scipio

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The Magnanimity of Scipio

Artist Gerbrand van den Eeckhout (Dutch, 1621-1674)

Date1658

Dimensions54 3/8 x 67 1/2 in. (138.1 x 171.5 cm)

Mediumoil on canvas

ClassificationPaintings

Credit LineGift of Arthur J. Secor

Object number

1923.3155

On View

Toledo Museum of Art (2445 Monroe Street), Gallery, 24

Label TextAfter conquering a Spanish city, the ancient Roman commander Scipio found among his “spoils” a beautiful young woman. When he learned that she was engaged, he did the honorable thing and magnanimously released her unharmed to her fiancé and parents. The girl’s parents, who had brought a ransom of gold (rendered in this painting as fine examples of 17th-century Dutch silver), attempted to give it to Scipio in gratitude. He refused, bestowing it instead on the young couple as a wedding gift. Gerbrand van den Eeckhout, a pupil of Rembrandt, used lighting and poses for the couple and the parents that immediately draw our eyes to them. Notice also how their individualized features set them apart from the other figures. Van den Eeckhout frequently painted portraits in the guise of stories from literature or history that expressed characteristics or situations appropriate to the portrait sitters. The Magnanimity of Scipio, for example, was an obvious choice for commemorating a wedding, and likely shows an actual married or betrothed couple and the parents of the bride.Published ReferencesNoe, S. P., "Two Paintings by Pupils of Rembrandt in the New York Historical Society," New York Historical Society Quarterly Bulletin, XI, No. 2, July 1927, pp. 38-39, repr.

Wit-Klinkhamer, T.M.D., "Een vermaarde zilveren beker," Nederlands Kunst-Historisch Jaarboek, XVII, 1966, p. 92.

Toledo Museum of Art, The Toledo Museum of Art, European Paintings, Toledo, 1976, pp. 57-58, pl. 134.

A Silver-Gilt Ewer by Adam van Vianen, Laren, Christie sale, Oct. 19, 1976, repr. pl. 9.

Blankert, Albert, Gods, Saints and Heroes, Washington, National Gallery of Art, 1980, no. 41, repr. 175 (catalogue entry by Arthur K. Wheelock, Jr.)

Sutton, Peter, C., The Continence of Scipio, by Gerbrandt van den Eeckhout (1621-1674) Bulletin, Philadelphia Museum of Art, vol. 78, no. 336, Fall 1982, pp. 6, 8, repr. fig. 4.

Sutton, Peter C., Northern European Paintings in the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, 1990, pp. 79-83, fig. 28-2 [as The Continence of Scipio].

Molte, J.W. von, Arent de Gelder, Dordrecht 1645-1727, Doornspijk, 1994, p. 113, fig. 56.

Kaak, Joachim, Rembrandt's Grisaille: Johannes der Taufer predigend, Hildescheim, 1994, p. 107, abb. 37.

Helgerson, Richard, "Soldiers and Enigmatic Girls: The Politics of Dutch Domestic Realism, 1650-1672," Representations, vol. 58, Spring 1997, The Regents of the University of California, Berkeley, fig. 11, pp. 71-73.

Muller, Sheila D., Dutch Art, an Encyclopedia, New York, 1997, p. 409, fig. 120 [after p. 330].

Mannuth, Volker, "'En kindskontrefeijtsel, antycqs gedaen' und 'Een...van Scipio africanus' - Zu Zwei neu identifizierten Gemälden des Gergrand van den Eeckhout," Oud Holland, vol. 112, no. 2/3, 1998, pp. 141, 144-145, 149 n 15, n 32, fig. 6.

Helgerson, Richard,Adulterous Alliances: Home, State, and History in Early Modern European Drama and Painting, Chicago, University of Chicago, 2000, p. 106-107, 115, fig. 15.

Dutch Masters: The Age of Rembrandt, Lecture by William Kloss, Chantilly, VA, Teaching Company, 2006, DVD.

Adams, Ann Jensen, Public Faces and Private Identities in Seventeenth-Century Holland: Portraiture and the Production of Community, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2009, pp. 182-88, 322n 115, fig. 50, p. 183.

Stighelen, Katlijne van der, Pokerfaced: Flemish and Dutch Baroque Faces Unveiled, Turnhout, Brepolis Publishers, 2011, fig. 1 (col.) p. 194.

Exhibition HistoryMontreal, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Five Centuries of Dutch Art, 1944, no. 64.

Denver, Denver Art Museum, 1953.

Washington, National Gallery of Art; Detroit, Detroit Institute of Arts; Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, Gods, Saints and Heroes, 1980-1981, no. 41.