Depicting a passage from the Old Testament (Joshua 5:13-15), this painting shows Joshua, who was charged with leading the Israelites to the promised land after the death of Moses. In the background stand his troops and the fortified city of Jericho. In the foreground, Joshua recoils before an unknown figure. The moment that the artist has captured, as expressed through his surprised reaction and shod feet, is that just before Joshua recognizes the stranger as the captain of God’s army and the ground upon which he stands as holy. Joshua will receive precise instructions on how to destroy Jericho from this messenger momentarily.
This painting is an oil sketch for a decorative program commissioned by Jacoba Lampsins (c. 1613-1664/7) from the Amsterdam artist Ferdinand Bol. The series of five finished paintings, representing an unusual combination of biblical and mythological subjects, has recently been shown to relate to Lampsins’s desire for the social elevation of her sons into the patriciate of Utrecht. In this context, the story of Joshua and the captain of God’s army exemplifies her position on the highly politicized use of ecclesiastical benefices by members of the city’s government. This sketch thereby functions as an excellent reference to the social debates that influenced art in the 17th century and as a rare example of female patronage in the Dutch Republic.

Bol, who studied with Rembrandt van Rijn around 1640, abandoned his master’s earthy palette and demonstrative gestures around 1650. But this scene, with its Old Testament subject and moment of divine recognition, reveals that Bol never fully abandoned the lessons he had learned from his master.