0009
Jeremias van Winghe
(Brüssel 1578 - 1645 Frankfurt/Main)
„Phineas kills Zimri and Cozbi“
oil on copper
62 x 49.5 cm
monogrammed on the lower left JSW(INGE) (in ligature)
Provenance
Christie's London, 19 April 1991, lot 87;
collection Erna Weidinger (1923–2021)
Estimate: € 8.000 - 15.000
Result: € 6.080 (incl. fees)
Auction is closed.
According to biblical tradition, Phineas was a high priest from the tribe of Levi. The rarely depicted scene shows an episode during the Exodus journey of the Israelites (Genesis 25:1-18), in which "the zealot" Phineas appeased YHWH's anger at the Israelites' idolatry by piercing the Israelite Zimri and his Midianite wife Cozbi with a spear in their camp, thus averting a plague from the people of Israel.
Jeremias van Winghe was born in Brussels in 1578, the son of the painter Joos van Winghe. A painting of the same subject, but with life-size figures, was found in his father's œuvre, according to Karel van Mander. (Karel van Mander, Het Schilder-Boeck, Haarlem 1604)