Jan Victors

(Amsterdam 1619 - after 1676 East India)

Juda and Thamar

ca. 1650
Oil on canvas, dimensions: 123 x 131 cm

The story

The story of the incestuous encounter between Juda and Thamar (Moses 1:38), rarely depicted in painting, is an independent part of the story of Joseph and his brothers (Moses 1:35-50). Juda had saved Joseph from death when he was thrown into a well by his elder brothers to remove him. Joseph was rescued by Judas´ selling him to a caravan marching past who then took him to Egypt. When Judas´ eldest son Ger died, his widow Thamar married Ger´s younger brother Onan who was committed to getting married to his sister-in-law in order for her to be provided for. Since Onan would not beget her any children as he perceived that the offspring would not pass for his own, he withdrew his seed to prevent her pregnancy so his brother would not have any descendants (Moses 1:38,9). When God slew Onan for punishment, Juda denied his daughter-in-law marrying his third son. Subsequently, Thamar obtained a child surreptitiously from Juda himself – which the scene depiced in the painting alludes to. Wearing a veil, she remained unrecognized to Juda who believed her to be a whore and lay with her. He promised her a he-goat in return, for which he was to leave a pledge – this is the incident shown in the picture – consisting of a ring, a cord and a staff (Moses 1:38,18). From this union the twin brothers Peres and Zerach emerged. This event, although morally objectionable, nevertheless bears a legitimizing significance indicating Juda and Thamar´s being progenitors of Christ (Math. 1; Luke 3).

The artist

Preferring subject-matter from the Old Testament, Victors exceeded the practice common with Rembrandt and his other pupils, thus claiming a prominent position among the members of this group  of artists. His marked  inclination to the Old Covenant is not only  accounted for by the Dutch-Calvinist background of his patronage in Amsterdam, his place of birth and sphere of action. In general, the Netherlandish people considered incidents from the Old Testament as prefigurations of their own history, which made them popular themes. Apparently some of the extremely rare subjects were especially intended for wealthy Jewish merchants who had settled in the city. As becomes evident in the painting in question, Victors´ strength is in his virtuous suggestion of materiality, exemplified in Judas´ furred coat and his turban, but equally made obvious in Thamar´s veil which makes the covered part of her face transparent so eventually nothing of her physiognomy is lost. In style, the artist departs from Rembrandt´s clearly constructed figures of the mid-1660´s which radiate in pictorial richness of detail („The Feast of Balthazar“, London, National Gallery, „Saskia“, Kassel, Staatliche Museen, inter alia). Yet the types used are of his own invention: tall and sturdy characters, the light on whom contributes considerably to the modelling of their hands and faces. Apart from Victors, Rembrandt pupils such as Aart de Gelder (Mauritshuis, Den Haag) and Fendinand Bol (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Pushkin Museum, Moscow), who like Victors was also resident in Amsterdam, attended to this picture subject.

The picture

Victors´ earliest dated pictures were executed in 1640. Formal reminicences of the present composition are to be found in his works of the late 1640´s and early 1650´s. The type of Judas´s head almost literally corresponds to the one of the peasant Gibea in the painting entitled „The Levite and his Concubine with the Peasant of Gibea“ in the National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin (Sumowski, Vol. IV, p. 2601, No. 1740, pl. p. 2639). The modelling of the figures, the chosen reduction to a three-quarter-length format and the actors being moved close to the forefront are well comparable to Victors´ representation of „Ruth Pledging Faith to Naemi“ (Sumowski, Vol. IV, p. 2607, col. pl. p. 2666) as is the detailed depiction of the landscape in the background. Therefore a dating of the painting of „Juda and Thamar“ to about 1650 seems plausible.

References

• Werner Sumowski, Gemälde der Rembrandt-Schüler, vol. IV, Landau, 1983, pp. 2589 – 2722 (Jan Victors).