Elisha Cursing the Children of Bethel Who Are Being Devoured by the Bears (1602): Art, History and Details

Elisha Cursing the Children of Bethel Who Are Being Devoured by the Bears (1602) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Nicolaes de Bruyn (Netherlandish, 1571–1656); Gillis van Coninxloo (Netherlandish, 1544–1607).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

This extensive landscape portrays an obscure and violent episode from the life of the prophet Elisha. As engravings grew in popularity, engravers sought to satisfy specific market demands. Nicolaes de Bruyn chose to engrave in the style of an earlier Dutch engraver, Lucas van Leyden. De Bruyn’s delicate, atmospheric style, composed of straight (not swelled) lines, appealed to a specific market of Lucas’s admirers. However, the size of De Bruyn’s engravings was something new. Such large formats were often painted over with watercolors and displayed as substitutes for paintings.

Object facts

• Title: Elisha Cursing the Children of Bethel Who Are Being Devoured by the Bears
• Date: 1602
• Creator attribution: Nicolaes de Bruyn (Netherlandish, 1571–1656); Gillis van Coninxloo (Netherlandish, 1544–1607)
• Culture: Netherlands
• Type: Print
• Technique: engraving
• Dimensions: Platemark: 46.5 x 58.7 cm (18 5/16 x 23 1/8 in.); Sheet: 47.4 x 59.9 cm (18 11/16 x 23 9/16 in.)
• Collection: PR - Engraving
• Department: Prints
• Accession number: 1996.223

Collection credit

John L. Severance Fund

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.