Artist Jerome Wierix (Dutch, 1553–November 1, 1619)
After Artist Marten de Vos the elder (Flemish, 1532–December 4, 1603)
Artist Gerard de Jode (Flemish, 1509/1517–1591)
Title Jonah Fleeing the Presence of the Lord
Plate Number Plate 1
Series The Story of Jonah
Date Ca. 1585
Medium Engraving on paper
Dimensions Image: 7 × 9 7/8 in. (17.8 × 25.1 cm)
Plate: 7 1/2 × 9 7/8 in. (19.1 × 25.1 cm)
Sheet: 10 9/16 × 14 11/16 in. (26.8 × 37.3 cm)
Credit Line Collection of Diether Thimme, Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University
Accession Number 98.302.1
About this Work
The subject of this plate foreshadows the trials of Jonah, who was sent by God to preach to the heathen citizenry of ancient Nineveh. Jonah, however, attempts to resist his calling by hopping a boat in Joppa with the intention of fleeing to Tarshish. The round classical temple and statue of a goddess to the left may represent the sins of the city Nineveh, seen in the far distance. Jonah points directly at the boat on the right, which will take him to his destiny. Its distinctive figurehead includes a carving of an elephant’s head, a traditional symbol of modesty and chastity and a possible reference to the water-bound trials of Noah. In later states of the print, the artist removed the visage of God and replaced him with a Tetragram, a common change to appease the Calvinists, who objected to human representatives of the divine. Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art’s collection has all four prints in this series (Eskenazi Museum of Art 98.302.1–.4).
