The Meeting of Abraham and Melchizedek

Artist Peter Paul Rubens (Flemish, 1577 - 1640)

Datec. 1625

CultureFlemish

MediumOil on canvas

ClassificationPaintings

ProvenanceInfanta Isabella Clara Eugenia, Coudenbergh Palace, Brussels, ca.1627-28-her death, 1633; by inheritance to her nephew, the Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand, Coudenbergh Palace, Brussels, 1633-his death, 1641; by inheritance to his brother, King Philip IV of Spain; sent to Spain ca.1648-49; possibly given as a gift to Don Luis Méndez de Haro, Marqués del Carpio [1599-1661]; given to the Church of the Discalced Carmelite Nuns, Loeches (after 1649); possibly purchased from the convent, circa 1808, by George August Wallis, on behalf of William Buchanan; confiscated in Madrid by French authorities; purchased by Count Edmund de Bourke, Danish Plenipotentiary at Madrid and sold by him in 1818 to Robert, Second Earl Grosvenor, 1st Marquess of Westminster, Grosvenor House, London for £10,000, 1818-his death; by inheritance to his son, Richard Grosvenor, Second Marquess of Westminster [1795-1869], Grosvenor House, London; by inheritance to his son, Hugh Lupus Grosvenor, First Duke of Westminster [1825-1899], Grosvenor House, London; by inheritance to his grandson, Hugh Richard Arthur Grosvenor, Second Duke of Westminster [1879-1953], Grosvenor House, London. Offered for sale (Christie's, London, July 4, 1924, lots 61, 62, 63), and withdrawn; purchased by John Ringling, May, 1926; bequest to The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, 1936.

Credit LineBequest of John Ringling, 1936

Object numberSN212

The largest and most ambitious artistically of the Ringling cartoons is The Meeting of Abraham and Melchizedek. The subject is an episode from Genesis 14:17-24, where the patriarch Abraham returns victorious from the battle of Dan. Melchizedek, priest-king of Salem, later called Jerusalem, offers Abraham bread and wine and blesses him. In return the patriarch offers the High Priest gifts from the spoils of battle. Rubens shows the offering of the bread and wine by the priest-king as a prefiguration of the Christian Eucharist and the institution of the papacy. Melchizedek, standing in higher position, hands down the offering to Abraham, as if handing down the Eucharist from the altar in the Catholic Mass. The figures attending the High Priest reflect the assistance of acolytes in the sacramental rite.

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