About this sheet
This original copperplate engraving from Pieter Mortier's illustrated Bible, Amsterdam circa 1700, shows two biblical scenes on one sheet: 2 Samuel 21:1, seven sons of Saul hanged by the Gibeonites, and 2 Samuel 24:15, David's census punished by pestilence. The upper scene illustrates 2 Samuel chapter 21, where, to end a famine, seven descendants of Saul were handed over to the Gibeonites and hanged on the hill. The bodies hang from a row of gibbets in a bare landscape, a sombre composition with birds wheeling overhead.
The lower scene shows 2 Samuel chapter 24, verse 15, the pestilence sent upon Israel after David numbered the people. David and his elders fall to their knees in sackcloth on a terrace overlooking a city, while the avenging angel with raised sword hovers in the sky. Each scene carries its own engraved caption with the scripture reference in Dutch and French, and the sheet is numbered 92 in the lower margin.
Pieter Mortier's Bible, published in Amsterdam circa 1700 as the Historie des Ouden en Nieuwen Testaments, is one of the most ambitious illustrated Bibles of the Dutch Baroque. Its many scenes were engraved on copper after designs by leading artists of the day, among them Gerard Hoet, Arnold Houbraken and Bernard Picart, and set two to a sheet within engraved frames that give each plate its distinctive architectural look. This sheet is signed in the lower margin by Ottmar Elliger as designer, with the engraving signed by J. de Later. The sheet is printed on laid paper with full margins, and the reverse is blank.
A sheet like this suits a study, a library or a reading room, and it pairs naturally with other plates from the Mortier Bible for anyone building a sequence on the story of Saul and David. The paired scenes and engraved frames look particularly handsome in a simple dark wood frame with a generous mount.
The sheet is in good condition for its age, with light toning, creases in the lower left and upper right margins, a few spots and frayed edges; 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.
