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| Artist | Attributed to after Rubens, Peter Paul (Flemish painter and draftsman, 1577-1640) |
| Title | The Meeting of Abraham and Melchisedech |
| Date earliest | possibly about 1700 |
| Date latest | possibly about 1799 |
| Material | oil on canvas |
| Measurements | 93.2 x 116.5 cm |
| Description | The subject of this work is taken from Genesis 14.1-20, and Hebrews 7.1-10, and depicts the meeting of Abraham, returning victorious from war, with Melchisedech, high priest and King of Jerusalem. Crowned with a laurel wreath, the King offers Abraham bread and wine, prefiguring Christ's Eucharist. This work is believed to be an eighteenth-century Flemish copy after an original painting by Rubens in the collection of the Duke of Westminster. Rubens painted the subject several times, including an oil sketch now in the Louvre, made in preparation for his depiction of the scene in the Jesuit Church in Anvers, painted in 1620-21, but destroyed by fire in 1718. |
| Subject | religion (the meeting of Abraham and Melchisedech); figure; buildings and gardens; animal (horse) |
| Collection | Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne |
| Current accession number | TWCMS:G3894 |
| Previous accession number(s) | LAG 82-65 |
| Acquisition details | Unknown; first registered in 1982. |
| Principal publications | Rosenberg, A., Rubens, Des Meisters Gemälde, Stuttgart, 1905, p. 286. |
| Notes |
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| Rights status | Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne (Tyne and Wear Museums) |
| Author | Elizabeth van der Beugel |
