The Prophet Elijah and the Widow of Zarephath

Cornelis van Poelenburch was an important representative of the first generation of Dutch artists who drew inspiration from the landscape and culture of Italy. He is celebrated for his small-scale paintings of arcadian, biblical, or mythological subjects that featured figures in an Italianate landscape, often with Roman ruins. This work was painted in Utrecht, after the artist had spent nearly a decade in Italy, and although the landscape setting here is imaginary, the ruin on the left is based on the Temple of Castor and Pollux in the Roman Forum, built in 495 BC.

The Prophet Elijah and the Widow of Zarephath illustrates the biblical story of the encounter between prophet Elijah and a widow and her son gathering sticks when he arrives at the town of Zarephath. Elijah asks her for a piece of bread, and the destitute widow invites him to her home where she uses her last bit of flour and oil to bake for him. The prophet then blesses the woman and her child, and assures them that their supplies of flour and oil will never be diminished. Shortly thereafter the son dies, but because of Elijah’s fervent prayers, God returned the boy to life. The story was often interpreted as an Old Testament prefiguration of the passion and sacrifice of Christ. The son, who clutches a bundle of firewood, pre-shadowed Christ carrying the cross, and because he was later brought back from the dead, he was seen as a prefiguration of the resurrected Christ.