Jephthah and His Daughter

Sebastiano Ricci began his career in Venice under the Florentine expatriate, Sebastiano Mazzoni, then traveled to Bologne, Parma and Rome, and ultimately re-discovered the highly decorative manner of one of the great sixteenth-century painters, Paolo Veronese.  In this manner, he had the typical eclectic training of the late Baroque that ran from highly polished classical to the freer brushwork of the Venetians.  Veronese's images of high drama and pageantry tended to be more linear than that of his contemporaries Titian and Tintoretto, but Ricci transformed this more exacting manner into the typical light, nervous touch that belonged to Venetian painting of the eighteenth century.

In the Book of Judges, Jephthah, to ensure his victory over the Ammonites, vowed to sacrifice the first person to come forth from his house following the battle.  To his horror, his only child emerges, and he is obliged to make good his word.  The near-claustrophobic atmosphere and theatricality of the composition echoes Jephthah's terrible predicament and communicates his anguish.  Ricci, however, is able to convey tragedy in such a manner that the virtuosity of line and dazzle of color and brushwork offsets much of the true horror of Jephthah's impending deed.