Dear friends!

We continue to acquaint you with the Artistic Heritage of Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra.

Today we are going to talk about “Ruth and Boaz” engraving made by the French master Jean Pen in the 2nd half of the 17 century. It has the dimensions of 51.2 × 76.4 cm and is part of the Fund collection of the Preserve.

The names of Ruth and Boaz, the ancestors of King David, appear in one of the books of the Old Testament, which is dedicated to these personalities. Young widow Ruth took advantage of the traditional right of the poor people to pick ears of corn after the reapers and came to the field of the landowner whose name was Boaz. The landowner showed favour to the girl and took her as his wife some time later.

The harvest scene with images of Ruth and Boaz was also used by Nicolas Poussin, the outstanding master of the French classicism. He chose this plot for the painting named “Summer”, which became part of his “Four Seasons” cycle of the works of art. The landscape and personalities are inseparable in the Poussin’s painting under discussion.

In mid-17^th century the pleiad of talented French engravers united around Nicolas Poussin. Jean Pean, the engraver, occupied the first place among them. His method of line engraving best suited to show the peculiarities of his master’s style of painting. Of course, the reproduction technology of the engraving (in other words, mirror image of the original print) cannot convey the color of the canvas. However, the tonal and textural richness of Poussin’s painting was brilliantly reproduced by Jean Penn.

Captions to the illustrations:

1. “Ruth and Boaz” engraving created by Jean Penn and based on “Summer”, the work of art made by painter Nicolas Poussin. (France, 2nd half of the 17th century, paper, etching. KPL-Gr-1270)

2. N. Poussin. “Summer” painting.

Prepared by Olena Pitateleva

Senior research worker

Study of Artistic Heritage Research Division

National Preserve “Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra”

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