Plan of Jerusalem and Bird's Eye View of Solomon's Temple, Mortier, circa 1700

This original copperplate engraving from Pieter Mortier's illustrated Bible, Amsterdam circa 1700, shows two biblical scenes on one sheet: 1 Kings 8, a bird's eye plan of the city of Jerusalem, and 1 Kings 8:20, the Temple of Solomon. The upper image, captioned 1 Kings chapter 8, is a bird's eye plan of the city of Jerusalem, drawn as a walled city on its hills with streets, houses, citadel and the Temple precinct, surrounded by valleys and outlying buildings. It is as much an antique city plan as an illustration, and reads well at a distance.

The lower image shows the Temple of Solomon, 1 Kings chapter 8, verse 20, in a grand reconstruction as a vast square complex of colonnaded courts, one within another, set in a hilly landscape with the city beyond. Such reconstructions of the Temple fascinated scholars and artists around 1700. Each scene carries its own engraved caption with the scripture reference in Dutch and French, and the sheet is numbered 97 in the lower margin.

Mortier's illustrated Bible stands among the landmarks of Dutch Baroque book illustration. The Amsterdam publisher brought together a team of designers and engravers, with contributing artists including Gerard Hoet, Arnold Houbraken and Bernard Picart, to produce a continuous pictorial narrative of scripture, each copper plate carrying two scenes framed like paintings hung on a wall. No designer or engraver is signed on this sheet, which carries the Mortier imprint and the plate number only. The sheet is printed on laid paper with full margins, and the reverse is blank.

For display, the tall double composition works well in a hallway or beside a bookcase, and a pair or group of Mortier sheets makes a coherent wall of Baroque religious art. Collectors of engravings illustrating the Books of Kings will find it a well documented and attractive example.

The sheet is in good condition for its age, with light toning, faint soiling and minor wear to the edges and lower corners of the margins; the image itself is clean.

This is an original antique print, not a modern reproduction. This item is sold unframed. Any framed or interior images are shown for presentation and inspiration only, unless the listing explicitly states that the item is sold framed.