Salomon's judgement

To understand

 Solomon delivers a judgment; two women are complaining in front of him with a dead child between them.

Each of them claims she is not the mother of this dead child but the mother of the one who is still alive. The latter is held by a soldier and the king orders it to be shared in two so that each mother should have one half of him.

The king is sitting on a throne often placed in the centre. He orders by a gesture; on the side some courtiers observe.

The soldiers hold the living child and prepare themselves to cut him in two.

The two women generally assume opposed expressions: one is satisfied and encourages the soldier; the other is upset and implores the king to stop while recognising that the other woman is the true mother. This is a lie to prevent the death of the child.

The representation takes for model a tribunal of the antiquity or of the medieval period though it is rather rare in the Middle-Ages. 

Not be confused with

This judgment can be mistaken for the massacre of the Innocents related in chapter 2 of the Gospel of Matthew.

Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men, was exceeding wroth, and sent forth, and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem (Matthew 2:16)

The scene shows some soldiers cutting the throats of children and mothers mad with terror; the king witnesses the scene. The children are often numerous and actually killed.

 
Bible of the abbaye of St Magloire in Paris; 15 th c. 

Bibliothèque Mazarine ms 0399  Enluminures France

The biblical narrative

The First Book of Kings, chapter 3

King Solomon, David’s son, reigned in Jerusalem around 950 BC. Like a good king, he delivered judgments with wisdom.

Two prostitutes apply to him; they have each a child the same age but one is dead, choked during his sleep. Each of them claims she is the mother of the living child. Solomon then asks:

Bring me a sword. And they brought a sword before the king. And the king said, Divide the living child in two, and give half to the one, and half to the other.

Then spoke the woman whose child was living to the king, for her bowels yearned upon her son, and she said, O my lord, give her the living child, and in no way slay it. But the other said, Let it be neither mine nor yours, but divide it.

Then the king answered and said, Give her the living child, and in no way slay it: she is his mother. (1 Kings 3:24-27)

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Further developments

Solomon’s wisdom is proverbial Political wisdom since he possesses intelligence and discernment of good and evil to govern the people. But Solomon’s wisdom extends to many other domains since he “spoke three thousand proverbs… And he spoke also of beasts, and of fowl, and of creeping things, and of fishes.” (The First Book of Kings 4:32-33) It was thought he had written several books of the Bible, among them the Book of Wisdom and the Book of Proverbs. But according to these texts, his love for women led him astray from God. A man famous for his wisdom lets himself be seduced to distraction…

Good Justice To deliver a good judgmentTo judge according to wisdom and not according to a simple code. This power and this quality have been claimed by European sovereigns. In this picture from a school book of the 19th century representing King St Louis, Solomon’s heritage can be recognised.     In the same way,    "the apotheosis of James I", painted by Rubens on the ceiling of the Banqueting Hall of Whitehall in London, celebrates the King of England as a New Solomon.    "Solomon and the Queen of Sheba" (c. 1534), a watercolour by Hans Holbein, probably presented to Henry V III, is actually a portait of the king himself.

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