Deborah and Barak against Sisera

For the last twenty years the series of six biblical scenes to which this canvas belongs has been attributed to the circle of Juan de la Corte (grandfather of Gabriel, the celebrated flower painter). Documented as a painter active in Madrid in 1613, a series of works dated between 1623 and 1642 are known by his hand. De la Corte failed to become Court Painter in 1627 as this place was not filled, while in 1638 he paid the highest amount of any Madrid painter to the tax authorities for his sold works. Numerous signed and unsigned works of varying quality produced by De la Corte’s studio are known. There are surviving series on the Trojan War and the Victories of Charles V while documentary evidence indicates the presence of around 40 works in the Buen Retiro Palace and the Alcázar in Madrid on biblical, mythological and historical subjects and landscapes.

This scene of combat can be identified among the numerous narratives of this type to be found in the Bible from the presence of an imploring woman among the soldiers. The prophetess Deborah summoned the warrior Barak so that he could engage in combat with Jabin, King of Canaan, whose troops were commanded by Sisera (Judges 4, 1-16). As is habitual in the work of this artist, the depiction is not exactly faithful to the biblical text and includes, for example, soldiers in boats located in an imaginary setting and a city with a port, towers, walls and buildings located high up in the pictorial space and similar to the cities in other works in this series. Both De la Corte and those of his studio assistants who specialised in battle scenes tended to depict the same elements with few variations.