Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego
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Catalogue Number:
51
Artist:
François Verdier (1631-1730)
Title:
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego (Daniel 3:24-25)
Work Type:
Drawing
Date:
18th Century
Culture:
French
Medium:
Black and white chalks with ink wash on joined laid paper
Dimensions:
6 X 9 3/8 in.
Inscriptions & Annotations:
Verso: Annotated 17 / >>>> (black chalk) and 134 / Verdier (graphite)
Condition:
Generally clean, intact, stable
Credit Line:
Cornell College, Gift of Robert Sonnenschein II
Accession Year:
1951
Object Number:
1951.51
Commentary:
This is a work by François Verdier as an text on the back of the work written in French identifies both the artist as and subject as being the biblical story of Shadrach, Mesach, and Abednego. The style is also characteristic of Verdier. This drawing can be understood to represent this biblical scene through the appearance of the furnace with the three men in front of the furnace; however, it Is a decidedly different interpretation of this subject matter as it does not represent the moment that Shadrach, Mesach, and Abednego are put to the flames. The viewer does not see the burning of the guards by the same flames that fail to hurt the men and also does not see an allusion to Jesus with a fourth figure in the furnace. Instead, Verdier chooses to depict a moment which could have taken place either before or after their condemnation to the furnace. NV
Characteristic drawings appear in Per Bjurström, French Drawings: Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries (Stokholm: LiberFörlag, 1976), nos. 703-731.