Jael and Sisera (Northcote)

{{Short description|Painting by James Northcote}}
{{Infobox artwork
| image_file=File:James Northcote (1746-1831) - Jael and Sisera - 03-881 - Royal Academy of Arts.jpg
| image_upright=1.4
| title=Jael and Sisera
| artist=[[James Northcote]]
| year=1787
| type=[[Oil painting|Oil on canvas]], [[religious painting]]
| height_metric=124.5
| width_metric=155
| metric_unit=cm
| imperial_unit=in
| museum=[[Royal Academy of Arts]]
| city= [[London]]
}}
'''''Jael and Sisera''''' is a 1787 [[religious art|religious]] [[history painting]] by the British [[artist]] [[James Northcote]]. It depicts a scene from the [[Old Testament]] [[Book of Judges]] featuring [[Jael]] and [[Sisera]]. Jael, [[Kenites|Kenite]] woman allied to the [[Jews]], is about to slay the [[Canaan|Canaanite]] [[general]] [[Sisera]] by driving a [[tent peg]] through his head. The subject had been a popular one in art.Newsom, Ringe & Lapsley p.131

Northcote had been a [[student|pupil]] and [[protégé]] of the first [[President of the Royal Academy]] [[Joshua Reynolds]]. When Northcote was elected to full members of the [[Royal Academy of Arts|Royal Academy]] in 1787 he was required to submit a [[diploma work]] and chose this painting. It was displayed at the [[Art Treasures Exhibition, Manchester 1857|Art Treasures Exhibition]] in [[Manchester]] in 1857. It remains in the collection of the Royal Academy, now based in [[Burlington House]].https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/jael-and-sisera-149053/view_as/grid/search/2026--date-from:1770--date-to:1850--work_type:painting--venue:royal-academy-of-arts- 5996/sort_by/date_earliest/order/asc/page/3 Northcote's depiction became one of the most popular illustrations for the scene during the [[nineteenth century]].Gunn p.79-80

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Bibliography==
* Gunn, David. ''Judges Through the Centuries''. Wiley, 2005.
* Newsom, Carol A., Ringe, Sharon H. & Lapsley, Jacqueline E. (ed.) ''Women's Bible Commentary, Third Edition''. Presbyterian Publishing Corporation, 2021.
* Pergam, Elizabeth A. ''The Manchester Art Treasures Exhibition of 1857''. Routledge, 2017.

[[Category:Paintings by James Northcote]]
[[Category:1787 paintings]]
[[Category:Paintings in the Royal Academy]]
[[Category:Religious art]]
[[Category:Oil paintings on canvas]]

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