Jan Baptist Weenix

(Amsterdam 1621–1659 Haarzuilens)
Ruth and Naomi,
signed and indistinctly dated lower left: Jweenincks fecit 16..,
oil on panel, 54.5 x 71.5 cm, unframed

Provenance:
Private collection, Austria;
where acquired by the present owner

We are grateful to Dr. Anke A. Van Wagenberg-Ter Hoeven for confirming the attribution on the basis of a photograph. She dates the works to around 1641–1642.

The present unpublished painting is a new addition to the corpus of work of Jan Baptist Weenix. The signature confirms an early date of execution and predates the artist’s Italian period, during which he added ‘Baptist’ to his official name and altered his signature to GIO(vanni) BATT(ist)A WEENIX. Weenix’s small group of biblical scenes recalls the work of Claes Moeyaert, under whom he studied. One of this group of biblical motifs, a painting entitled Moses Assailed by an Angel and Zipporah Circumcising their Son, which is conserved in the National Museum in Warsaw (inv. no. M.Ob.433 MNW) bears an almost identical signature to the one found on the present work.

This present painting shows the story of the Israelite woman Naomi, here seated on a mule, who has lost her husband and her two sons to famine. As she sets out to return to her birthplace in Bethlehem, Naomi urges her two daughters-in-law to leave her and return to their own people. The first wife, Orpah, obeys, but the second, Ruth, refuses and delivers her famous speech of loyalty: ‘Where you go, I will go; where you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die, I will die – there will I be buried’. 

Although his career was relatively short, Jan Baptist Weenix produced a diverse body of work spanning various painting genres, including portraiture, biblical scenes, Italianate landscapes, and capriccio harbours. He trained under Jan Micker, Claes Moeyaert and Abraham Bloemaert before embarking on a sojourn to Italy where he settled in Rome around 1672. There, he worked for Cardinal Giovanni Battista Pamphili the later Pope Innocent X. During his time in Rome, he joined the Bentvueghels, a group of Dutch and Flemish painters active between 1620 and 1720, and was given the nickname Ratel, referring to his speech defect. After four years, he returned to Amsterdam, where he trained his son, Jan Weenix, who later became celebrated for his hunting trophy paintings.