Artwork
The Ark of the Lord in the Temple of Dagon
The Ark of the Lord in the Temple of Dagon is an ink print by the Renaissance artist Battista Franco. It dates from 1530 and is held in the collection of the National Gallery of Art.
About this work
Overview
Battista Franco’s 1530 engraving, titled *The Ark of the Lord in the Temple of Dagon*, depicts the biblical moment when the sacred Ark is situated within the Philistine sanctuary of Dagon. Executed as a print, the image combines a narrative of divine presence with surrounding domestic details, offering a compact visual account of a scriptural episode.
Subject & Meaning
The composition centers on the Ark, the covenantal chest of the Israelites, placed amid the stone altar and cultic furnishings of Dagon’s temple.
The composition centers on the Ark, the covenantal chest of the Israelites, placed amid the stone altar and cultic furnishings of Dagon’s temple. By juxtaposing the holy object with ordinary activities—figures in everyday dress, market stalls, and domestic architecture—Franco suggests a dialogue between the sacred and the quotidian, reflecting contemporary concerns about the intrusion of the divine into daily life.
Technique & Style
Franco employed traditional copperplate engraving, incising lines into a metal surface before inking and pressing onto paper. The work displays fine hatching and cross‑hatching to model volume and texture, while the crowded arrangement of figures and architectural elements reveals a Mannerist taste for complex, densely populated scenes. The crisp linear quality underscores the print’s narrative clarity.
History & Provenance
Created in 1530, the engraving belongs to the early phase of Franco’s printmaking career, when he was active in Rome and Venice. Though specific ownership records are scarce, the print circulated among collectors of religious imagery in the mid‑Sixteenth century, appearing in several contemporary catalogues of prints and influencing later depictions of biblical architecture.
Artist & collection
