Jael Slaying Sisera

Carlo Maratti

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

In the later 1670s, Maratti designed a series of mosaics for a space in the left nave of Saint Peter's Basilica in Rome. It consists of biblical patriarchs, prophets, and heroines in six half-lunettes and four pendentives along with Saint John's vision of the Immaculate Conception in the surmounting cupola. This is a study for the Jael Slaying Sisera mosaic. Sisera, a Canaanite general and enemy of the Israelites, had sought refuge in the tent of Jael after his defeat on the battlefield, mistakenly believing her to be an ally. Plying Sisera with food and drink and inducing him to sleep, Jael hammered a tent peg into his skull, nailing him to the ground. This noble act earned Jael a place among the heroines of ancient Israel. Maratti's drawing shows her holding the tent peg and hammer, poised to perform her grisly yet heroic deed.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.

Metropolitan Museum of Art