The Parable of the Unmerciful Servant / Jan van Hemessen
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About this Item
Record Details
- Accession Number
- 1959/1.108
- Title
- The Parable of the Unmerciful Servant
- Artist
- Jan van Hemessen
- Artist Nationality
- Netherlandish
- Artist Life Dates
- c. 1500-c.1575
- Medium and Support
- oil on panel
- Object Creation Date
- circa 1556
- Object Creation Place
- Europe (continent)
- Flanders (former nation/state/empire)
- Antwerp (inhabited place)
- Creation Place 1
- Europe (continent)
- Creation Place 2
- Flanders (former nation/state/empire)
- Creation Place 3
- Antwerp (inhabited place)
- Credit Line
- Museum Purchase
- Style/Group/Movement
- Antwerp Mannerist
- Dimensions
- 81.6 cm x 155.2 cm (32 1/8 in. x 61 1/8 in.)
- Century
- 16th century
- Primary Object Classification
- Painting
- Primary Object Type
- Bibilcal
- Secondary Object Classification
- Painting
- Secondary Object Type
- narrative painting
- Physical Description
- This painting depicts the interior of a room where four men are grouped around a table. They are painted as half-length figures, and their forms fill the foreground. They are painted in warm tones of brown, red and green and dressed in 16th century Netherlandish clothing. There is a king, wearing a pointed crown, who, with his right arm awkwardly crossed over his left, points to another man across the table. He has a furrowed brow and his mouth is partially open as if he is speaking. Next to him is a man looking downward, intently counting coins piled on the table. The third man pauses while writing in a book, his hand with the pen is stopped in mid-air, and looks back at the king. The fourth man, on the other side of the table, has his hands clasped in a pleading gesture and his eyes meet the gaze of the king. Items in the room and on the table such as books, scissors, a money bag, and an hourglass, are painted in great detail. In the upper right, a small outdoor scene, painted in tones of light green, shows an imaginary cityscape with a man being dragged into an underground chamber by some soldiers.
- Subject Matter
- Jan van Hemessen has been credited with originating this type of moralizing genre painting. Here he paints a version of one of Christ's parables from the New Testament (Matthew 18:23-35). A king was settling his accounts and a servant was unable to pay his large debt of money. After the servant pleaded for mercy, the king took pity and released him from his debt. Later, this man saw a fellow servant who owed him money and demanded payment. The man could not repay him and the servant sent him to prison. When the king heard of this, he summoned the servant and punished him since he had not shown the same mercy that was given to him by the king.
- The scene of a tax collector's office was a common subject in Flemish art in the 16th century, but Van Hemesson has added the narrative elements of the parable to relate the importance of forgiveness. He has chosen to show the moment in the story when the king denounces the servant, " You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you besought me: and should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?" (Matthew 18: 32-33)
- Secondary Keywords
- books
- books by external form
- exchange media
- information artifacts
- information artifacts by physical form
- information forms
- monarchs
- objects we use
- people
- people (agents)
- people and culture
- people by gender
- people by occupation
- people in government and administration
- rulers (people)
- Rights
- If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please visit https://umma.umich.edu/about/services/request-image/ for more information and to fill out the online Image Rights and Reproductions Request Form.
Technical Details
- Collection
- University of Michigan Museum of Art
- Image Size
- 3709 x 1905
- File Size
- 258 KB
- Record
- 1959/1.108
- Link to this Item
-
https://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/musart/x-1959-sl-1.108/1959_1.108.jpg
Rights and Permissions
Related Links
Portfolios
IIIF
- Manifest
-
https://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/i/image/api/manifest/musart:1959-SL-1.108:1959_1.108.JPG
Cite this Item
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- Full citation
-
"The Parable of the Unmerciful Servant; Jan van Hemessen." In the digital collection University of Michigan Museum of Art. https://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/musart/x-1959-sl-1.108/1959_1.108.jpg. University of Michigan Library Digital Collections. Accessed April 19, 2024.
