水浴のバテシバ

The story comes from the Old Testament. King David, walking on his palace roof, sees Bathsheba bathing far below, sends for her, and sets in motion an affair and the death he later arranges for her husband. Rubens painted the moment just before all of it begins, around 1635. Bathsheba sits at her bath while a servant dresses her hair, and a page hands her the fatal letter from the king. Up on the wall behind, you can just make out David himself, small in the distance, watching. Rubens was in his late fifties by now, painting some of his warmest flesh tones, and the model's fair, full features recall his young second wife, Helena Fourment.