About this artwork
The figures in this classical landscape setting are subsidiary to the idealised landscape setting and the classical temple. The painting depicts the encounter between Judah and Tamar, related in the book of Genesis. Tamar, in disguise, seduces Judah (her father-in-law) and later gives birth to twins. Patel never visited Italy, but despite this his work is infused with the light, sweeping vistas and ancient ruins synonymous with that country.
Updated before 2020
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artist:Pierre Patel (about 1605 - 1676) French
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title:A Classical Landscape with Judah and Tamar
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date created:About 1650/52
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materials:Oil on panel
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measurements:51.10 x 66.40 cm; Framed: 73.60 x 91.90 x 11.50 cm
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object type:
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credit line:Accepted by H M Government in Lieu of Inheritance Tax and allocated to the National Galleries of Scotland 2015
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accession number:NG 2874
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gallery:
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glossary:
Pierre Patel
Pierre Patel
Pierre Patel was the outstanding French landscape painter of the seventeenth century, working in Paris, rather than Rome. He was strongly influenced by Claude Lorrain, but evolved his own rigorously classical idiom and was an important model for landscape artists in the early nineteenth century.