The Idolatry of King Solomon 1635 - 1655

Jacob Hogers painted this large oil on canvas depicting "The Idolatry of King Solomon" sometime before his death in 1655. It shows a scene from the Hebrew Bible in which King Solomon is led astray from the worship of Yahweh by his foreign wives, who persuade him to build temples to their gods. Hogers was working in the Dutch Golden Age, a period of great wealth and cultural achievement for the Netherlands, closely associated with the rise of a powerful merchant class. This painting presents an interesting problem for the art historian. As a Protestant nation, the Dutch were deeply critical of idolatry and lavish displays of wealth and power. However, they were also fascinated by the Old Testament and its stories of kings and prophets. Here, the painting seems to critique the excesses of royal power and the dangers of religious syncretism, but it also revels in the spectacle of Solomon's court. To understand this painting better, we might look to theological debates of the time, studies of the Dutch monarchy, and the display of religious history in Dutch painting.