Gideon
Date1900
MediumMolded, incised, and painted earthenware plaque
Dimensions28 x 17 in. (71.1 x 43.2 cm)
frame: 35 1/2 × 24 1/2 in. (90.2 × 62.2 cm)
Credit LineF. V. du Pont Acquisition Fund, 2001
Object number2001-8
Label TextHarold Rathbone was an enthusiastic supporter of the Pre-Raphaelites’ aesthetic and shared their appreciation for the Middle Ages, naming his pottery works after the famous Renaissance family of terra cotta makers. The style of this piece with its rather archaic stick-figure format is clearly based on medieval models. The subject is Gideon, who appears in the Old Testament’s book of Judges. Rathbone copied the subject from a stained-glass window designed by Ford Madox Brown and produced by the Morris firm for the church of St. Martin-on-the-Hill in Scarborough in 1862.
