The Levite at Gibeah

Gerbrand van den Eeckhout (1621-1674) was a Dutch Golden Age painter, a pupil of Rembrandt, known for the biblical and genre subjects that combine Rembrandt's chiaroscuro with a more colorful palette and gentler manner. The Levite at Gibeah from the early 1640s depicts an episode from the Book of Judges in which a Levite and his concubine are attacked by the men of Gibeah, a subject that Eeckhout treats with the biblical seriousness and chiaroscuro that he learned from Rembrandt. The early 1640s date places this in Eeckhout's most Rembrandt-like period, when he was producing the biblical subjects in which Rembrandt's influence is most pronounced.

The Levite at Gibeah is important in Eeckhout's early development because it demonstrates the Rembrandt-like chiaroscuro and biblical seriousness that distinguish his early work from the more colorful genre subjects of his later career. The early 1640s painting shows Eeckhout applying Rembrandt's chiaroscuro to a biblical subject with the seriousness that Rembrandt himself brought to biblical narrative, creating a work that is among the most Rembrandt-like in Eeckhout's oeuvre.

The Levite at Gibeah is Eeckhout's most Rembrandt-like biblical subject: an episode from the Book of Judges rendered with the chiaroscuro and biblical seriousness that he learned from Rembrandt. The early 1640s painting shows the Rembrandt pupil applying his master's manner to biblical narrative at its most serious.