Ferdinand Bol 1616 – 1680

Cyrus Hands over the Looted Treasure

oil on canvas (408 × 409 cm) — c. 1660 Museum Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Ferdinand Bol biography

This work is linked to 1 Esdras 2:10

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The Persian king Cyrus hands over the treasure that was looted from the Temple of Jerusalem to the Jewish people. He also granted them permission to return home and to rebuild their temple, thus ending the Babylonian captivity (586-538 b.C.).

This painting is one in a series of five wall hangings that Bol made for a house on the Nieuwegracht in Utrecht. The other paintings show The Captain of God's Army Appears to Joshua, Pharoah's Daughter Finds Moses, Abraham meets the Three Angels, and Aeneas Receives a New Set of Armour.

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