The Conversion of Paul
by DUJARDIN, Karel, Oil on canvas, 187 x 135 cm
Dujardin’s painting was inspired by a print of the same subject by Antonio Tempesta. He painted a couple of monumental history pieces with equally large figures in the early 1660s: St Paul Healing the Cripple at Lystra (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam) and Hagar and Ishmael in the Wilderness (Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota) All these painting evince the masterly skill of the artist in a class of art, which, had he pursued it exclusively, might have raised him to the same distinguished eminence which he enjoys as an animal painter.