The Suicide of Saul

The Suicide of Saul
Artist	Pieter Bruegel the Elder
Year	1562[1]
Type	Oil on panel
Dimensions	33.5 cm × 55 cm (13.2 in × 22 in)
Location	Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

The Suicide of Saul is an oil-on-panel by the Flemish Renaissance artist Pieter Bruegel the Elder, painted in 1562. It is in the collection of the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.

Description

An inscription on the painting identifies the subject as the rarely represented scene of the suicide of Saul after his defeat by the Philistines. These events are described in 1 Samuel 31, 1-5:

Now the Philistines fought against Israel; and the men of Israel fled from before the Philistines, and fell slain on Mount Gilboa. Then the Philistines followed hard after Saul and his sons. And the Philistines killed Jonathan, Abinadab, and Malchishua, Saul's sons. The battle became fierce against Saul. The archers hit him, and he was severely wounded by the archers.

Then Saul said to his armorbearer, "Draw your sword, and thrust me through with it, lest these uncircumcised men come and thrust me through and abuse me."

But his armorbearer would not, for he was greatly afraid. Therefore Saul took a sword and fell on it. And when his armorbearer saw that Saul was dead, he also fell on his sword, and died with him.

— 1 Samuel 31:1-5,

NKJV^[2]

Bruegel has chosen the highly dramatic moment of the death of the armourbearer, just as the Philistines are approaching. ^{See 1st detail}

Saul's death was interpreted as a punishment of pride - it was among the proud that Dante met Saul in the Purgatorio - and this may account for Bruegel's choice of such an unusual subject.^[3]

As with most of his subjects taken from the Bible, Bruegel treats Saul's suicide as a contemporary event, showing the armies in 16th century armour. In 1529, the German painter

The Suicide of Saul is an early attempt by Bruegel to reconcile landscape and figure painting. If it is compared with one of his latest works,

See also

• List of paintings by Pieter Bruegel the Elder

References

1. ^ signed at bottom left: "SAUL XXXI CAPIT BRVEGEL M.CCCCC.LXII"
2. ^ From online NKJV, 1 Samuel 31
3. ^ Cf. Dante's Canto XII, vv.40-42: O Saul, transfixed by your own sword, how dead / you seemed to lie on Mount Gilboa's plain, / which since that time has known no rain or dew. (transl. M. Musa, Penguin Books, 1985). Saul was placed in the 2nd Terrace of Purgatory, with King Nimrod, the subject of another Bruegel painting, The Tower of Babel.
4. ^ Some of the great battle scenes of The Lord of the Rings film trilogy are strongly reminiscent of this composition's battle deployment.
5. ISBN 9780853239383
   .
6. ISBN 0-00-001088-X
   (in Italian)

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to The Suicide of Saul.

• The Suicide of Saul at the KHM (German)
• Kunsthistorisches Museum's Official Website
• Bosch Bruegel Society
• 99 works by Pieter Bruegel the Elder
• Creative Bruegel laid the foundation of the Netherlands School (Russian)
• "Bruegel" . Encyclopedia Americana. 1920.