Johann Georg Platzer

(St. Paul in Eppan 1704-1761)

The Queen of Sheba before Solomon

Footnotes

Provenance
Sale, Sotheby's, 26 March 1969, lot 100 where purchased by the present owner's parents


Recounted in the Old Testament in the first Book of Kings (10: 1-13), the event depicted in the present work sees the Queen of Sheba and her retinue before King Solomon. The Queen did not believe all that she had heard of the wise King Solomon and so came to test him. Having done so, she declared that he far exceeded the reports she had received of him and presented him with 120 talents of gold along with large quantities of spices and precious stones. Such a subject provides Platzer with ample opportunity to display his skills at producing highly detailed works with particular attention devoted to the description of contrasting textures such as the fine jewels, the rich fabrics and the architectural details in the present Queen of Sheba before Solomon. The Queen stands before King Solomon with her vast retinue and numerous gifts filling the fore and middle ground. Solomon sits high on his throne decorated with a figure of Justice seated on the pediment at the top and, below, an image of Moses receiving the Tablets of the Law. No detail is spared even in the depiction of the profusion of figures watching the scene from the balconies, porticoes and roof of the surrounding buildings.

Born in 1704 into a family of painters from the southern Tyrol, Platzer was one of the principal exponents of the Austrian rococo style. Having studied first with his stepfather Josef Anton Kessler (died 1721) and then his uncle Christoph Platzer (active 1698-1720), court painter at Passau, Johann Georg Platzer arrived in Vienna most probably in 1726 where he enrolled in the Akademie der Bildenden Künste. Along with his friend Frans Christoph Janneck (1703-1761) Platzer became known for his small scale paintings, most often on a copper support, executed with an almost miniaturist technique but depicted with great theatricality. His highly finished works reveal the influence of the Leiden fijnschilders and, most particularly in his conversation pieces, the French Rococo. Whilst the majority of his works are conceived on a relatively small scale, the present work is quite large in comparison with many paintings from his oeuvre.