Lot 187: Guillaume Courtois, il Borgognone (St. Hippolyte 1628-1679 Rome)

Guillaume Courtois, il Borgognone (St. Hippolyte 1628-1679 Rome)
The Plague at Ashdod
oil on canvas
29 x 24¼ in. (73.7 x 61.6 cm.)
sold together with an engraving after the same subject (image 282 x 297 mm.; sheet 336 x 345 mm.)
2

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The subject is taken from the Old Testament (Samuel 5: 1-6), and tells how the Philistines captured the Ark of the Covenant, placing it in the temple of the idol Dagon at Ashdod (now Israel), thus incurring God's wrath. As punishment the idol was smashed and its worshippers stricken with plague. In the present picture Il Borgongnone draws our attention to the physical affliction of the plague on the idolatrists.