Pieter Fransz. de Grebber Haarlem circa 1600 - 1652/4

This powerful Dutch classicising work finds most parallels among the works of Haarlem artists in the second and third decade of the 17th century such as de Grebber, Salomon de Bray and later his son Jan de Bray and Caesar van Everdingen.  It may be compared in particular to Pieter de Grebber's most important early work in this vein, the Belshazzar's Feast of 1625 now at Kassel, Gemäldegalerie (inv. no. GK221, reproduced by A. Blankert, `Classicism in Dutch Painting 1614-1670', in the catalogue of the exhibition, Gods, Saints and Heroes. Dutch Painting in the Age of Rembrandt, Washington, National Gallery of Art, Detroit, Institute of Arts and Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, November 1980 - July 1981, pp. 183ff, fig. 3). For the figure of Elishah (?) on the right of the composition de Grebber appears to have used the same model as for a similar figure seen in profile for his Conferring of the sword on the coat-of-arms of Haarlem of 1625, now in the Frans Hals Museum in Haarlem (exhibited, Dutch Classicism in seventeenth century painting, Rotterdam, Boymans Museum and Frankfurt, Städelsches Kunstinstitut, 2000, no. 14, reproduced).

We are grateful to Fred G. Miejer for first suggesting the attribution to de Grebber. The subject is probably taken from the second Book of Kings, 5: 1-19. Naaman, the commander of the army of Damascus, was a leper, who was told by Elishah to bathe seven times in the river Jordan. Naaman, in spite of his misgivings, did so, and his flesh was restored. As a reward Naaman offered Elishah many gifts, which the latter refused, explaining that the cure had come only from Heaven.