The Queen of Sheba before Solomon

Konrad Witz was born in Rottweil am Neckar round 1400. His name first receives mention in Basel where he is recorded as joining a guild in 1434. In 1435, he became a citizen of Basel. It was probably during the following two years that Witz painted a large altarpiece featuring themes from the Speculum Humanae Salvationis or Mirror of Human Salvation, in all likelihood for Saint Leonhard in Basel. Only a few of his other works have survived. The wall paintings he is known to have created have vanished, and most of his other works probably fell victim to the iconoclasts, who were particularly radical in emptying the churches and chapels of the Upper
Rhine region. Panels of a later altarpiece dating from 1444 have been preserved in Geneva. Witz died before 1446.
Witz was one of the great innovators in the Upper Rhine region. He employs the new Realist style, which began to emerge in Netherlandish painting in the early 15th century (as evidenced in the works of van Eyck and the Master of Flémalle), in a highly personal way, his work superseding the courtly, transcendentally determined style of International Gothic. His figures appear stocky and block-like as if constructed out of cubes and prisms. The garments fall in sharp, splintering, angular folds whose ridges catch the light, standing out from the deep shadow, which offsets them. This accentuated modelling creates a remarkably corporeal and three-dimensional effect. Witz is similarly ambitious in his structuring of the pictorial space, striving to show its real extent and depth. He also had a strong interest in reproducing the material appearance of things, the material quality of textiles, metal, wood or masonry, so as to make his portrayals as realistic as possible. The encounter between the Queen of Sheba and King Solomon is one of eight depictions from the inner sides of the so-called Heilsspiegelaltar. The middle section has been lost and we know nothing about the motifs it depicted. As far as they are preserved, the inner sides of the wings show subjects from the Speculum Humanae Salvationis, a devotional book of 14th-century Dominican mystics. Here, stories from the Old Testament and historical events are related typologically to the story of redemption. The scenes are combined to illustrate the idea that Christ’s becoming human and the redemption of mankind by the Son of God had been predetermined since the very beginning of the world. The Queen of Sheba’s visit to Solomon with gifts of gold and spices was variously interpreted in the Middle Ages. For some it was a prefiguration of the Adoration of the Magi, who likewise came from the East to worship the newborn king Jesus Christ. According to this interpretation, Christ was regarded as a new Solomon. Another interpretation sees the events as follows: just as the Queen of Sheba visited Solomon to hear his wisdom, so the Church comes from all corners of the world to hear the Word of God. The Speculum Humanae Salvationis provides yet another interpretation: the joy felt by the Queen of Sheba at Solomon’s wisdom is like the beatitude experienced by souls in heaven in contemplating the countenance of Christ. Konrad Witz certainly knew how to portray the glow of wisdom in Solomon’s face and the Queen of Sheba’s expression of veneration. The depiction confines itself to the bare essentials, the two figures connected by the act of gift-giving. Solomon presides on a bench, while the queen approaches on bended knee. The other scenes from the interior of the altarpiece show similarly restrained compositions. WKKonrad Witz was born in Rottweil am Neckar round 1400. His name first receives mention in Basel where he is recorded as joining a guild in 1434. In 1435, he became a citizen of Basel. It was probably during the following two years that Witz painted a large altarpiece featuring themes from the Speculum Humanae Salvationis or Mirror of Human Salvation, in all likelihood for Saint Leonhard in Basel. Only a few of his other works have survived. The wall paintings he is known to have created have vanished, and most of his other works probably fell victim to the iconoclasts, who were particularly radical in emptying the churches and chapels of the Upper Rhine region. Panels of a later altarpiece dating from 1444 have been preserved in Geneva. Witz died before 1446.
Witz was one of the great innovators in the Upper Rhine region. He employs the new Realist style, which began to emerge in Netherlandish painting in the early 15th century (as evidenced in the works of van Eyck and the Master of Flémalle), in a highly personal way, his work superseding the courtly, transcendentally determined style of International Gothic. His figures appear stocky and block-like as if constructed out of cubes and prisms. The garments fall in sharp, splintering, angular folds whose ridges catch the light, standing out from the deep shadow, which offsets them. This accentuated modelling creates a remarkably corporeal and three-dimensional effect. Witz is similarly ambitious in his structuring of the pictorial space, striving to show its real extent and depth. He also had a strong interest in reproducing the material appearance of things, the material quality of textiles, metal, wood or masonry, so as to make his portrayals as realistic as possible.
The encounter between the Queen of Sheba and King Solomon is one of eight depictions from the inner sides of the so-called Heilsspiegelaltar. The middle section has been lost and we know nothing about the motifs it depicted. As far as they are preserved, the inner sides of the wings show subjects from the Speculum Humanae Salvationis, a devotional book of 14th-century Dominican mystics. Here, stories from the Old Testament and historical events are related typologically to the story of redemption. The scenes are combined to illustrate the idea that Christ’s becoming human and the redemption of mankind by the Son of God had been predetermined since the very beginning of the world. The Queen of Sheba’s visit to Solomon with gifts of gold and spices was variously interpreted in the Middle Ages. For some it was a prefiguration of the Adoration of the Magi, who likewise came from the East to worship the newborn king Jesus Christ. According to this interpretation, Christ was regarded as a new Solomon. Another interpretation sees the events as follows: just as the Queen of Sheba visited Solomon to hear his wisdom, so the Church comes from all corners of the world to hear the Word of God. The Speculum Humanae Salvationis provides yet another interpretation: the joy felt
by the Queen of Sheba at Solomon’s wisdom is like the beatitude experienced by souls in heaven in contemplating the countenance of Christ. Konrad Witz certainly knew how to portray the glow of wisdom in Solomon’s face and the Queen of Sheba’s expression of veneration. The depiction confines itself to the bare essentials, the two figures connected by the act of gift-giving. Solomon presides on a bench, while the queen approaches on bended knee. The other scenes from the interior of the altarpiece show similarly restrained compositions. WK