About this sheet
This original copperplate engraving from Pieter Mortier's illustrated Bible, Amsterdam circa 1700, shows two biblical scenes on one sheet: 1 Kings 6:1, Solomon has the Temple built, and 1 Kings 7:48, work on the golden altar and other Temple furnishings. The upper scene illustrates 1 Kings chapter 6, verse 1, the building of the Temple at Jerusalem in the fourth year of Solomon's reign. Ox carts and teams haul timber and stone up a long road towards the great Temple rising on its hill, while workmen and overseers fill the foreground.
The lower scene shows 1 Kings chapter 7, verse 48, the making of the golden altar and the other furnishings of the Temple. Craftsmen work at benches and a sculptured altar in a busy workshop open to the building site, with draperies, tools and vessels scattered about. Each scene carries its own engraved caption with the scripture reference in Dutch and French, and the sheet is numbered 94 in the lower margin.
Pieter Mortier, the Amsterdam publisher and bookseller, issued his illustrated Bible circa 1700 as a showpiece of Dutch Baroque printmaking. Its contributing artists included Gerard Hoet, Arnold Houbraken and Bernard Picart, and the plates present the biblical narrative as a sequence of theatrical scenes, crowded with figures and set among classical architecture and wide landscapes. The engraving is signed in the margin by Jan Luyken, one of the finest Dutch etchers and engravers of his generation; no designer's signature is visible. The sheet is printed on laid paper with full margins, and the reverse is blank.
The sheet would suit a library, a study or a quiet corner of a living room, where its fine line work rewards close viewing. Hung in a group with other Mortier plates, it becomes part of a continuous illustrated narrative of the Books of Kings.
The sheet is in good condition for its age, with light toning, faint spotting and a few small chips along the right edge of the margin; the image itself is clean and strong.
This is an original antique print, not a modern reproduction. This item is sold unframed. Any framed or interior images are shown for presentation and inspiration only, unless the listing explicitly states that the item is sold framed.
