The Prayer of Gideon

This 1640 Prayer of Gideon depicts the Old Testament episode where Gideon asks God for a sign through the fleece, a subject that prefigured the Incarnation in typological interpretation. Jordaens treated Old Testament narratives with the same physical immediacy he brought to genre scenes. Jordaens, who outlived both Rubens and Van Dyck to become the dominant figure in Flemish Baroque painting for the second half of the seventeenth century, was particularly celebrated for his exuberant genre subjects, especially his series on the Flemish proverb about the King of the Bean.

The painting combines dramatic lighting with Jordaens' characteristic warm palette and robust figure painting, creating a compelling interpretation of the Old Testament narrative.