{
"data": {
"id": 452866,
"accession_number": "2022.3",
"share_license_status": "CC0",
"tombstone": "Balaam and the Ass, 1583. Hans Bol (Flemish, 1534\u20131593). Gouache heightened with gold on vellum laid down on panel; sheet: 13.7 x 19.6 cm (5 3/8 x 7 11/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, John L. Severance Fund, 2022.3",
"current_location": null,
"title": "Balaam and the Ass",
"creation_date": "1583",
"creation_date_earliest": 1583,
"creation_date_latest": 1583,
"artists_tags": [
"male"
],
"culture": [
"Netherlands, 16th century"
],
"technique": "Gouache heightened with gold on vellum laid down on panel",
"support_materials": [],
"department": "Drawings",
"collection": "DR - Flemish",
"type": "Drawing",
"measurements": "Sheet: 13.7 x 19.6 cm (5 3/8 x 7 11/16 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"sheet": {
"height": 0.137,
"height_inch": 5,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.375,
"width": 0.196,
"width_inch": 7,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.6875
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": null,
"inscriptions": [
{
"inscription": "Signed and dated in gold, on the trunk of the central tree: HBol 1583",
"inscription_translation": null,
"inscription_remark": null,
"sortorder": null
},
{
"inscription": "bears old numbering on the panel verso: No 28",
"inscription_translation": null,
"inscription_remark": null,
"sortorder": null
},
{
"inscription": "old inventory number on a label, verso: 268",
"inscription_translation": null,
"inscription_remark": null,
"sortorder": null
}
],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [
{
"id": 440585,
"title": "Tales of the City: Drawing in the Netherlands from Bosch to Bruegel",
"description": "Tales of the City: Drawing in the Netherlands from Bosch to Bruegel. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (co-organizer) (October 9, 2022-January 8, 2023).",
"opening_date": "2022-10-09T04:00:00"
}
],
"legacy": []
},
"provenance": [
{
"description": "Private Collection, Belgium",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": null,
"sortorder": 1
},
{
"description": "(Sotheby's, New York, NY), sold to The Cleveland Museum of Art",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "?-2022",
"sortorder": 2
},
{
"description": "The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "March 7, 2022-",
"sortorder": 3
}
],
"find_spot": null,
"related_works": [],
"former_accession_numbers": [],
"did_you_know": "This work is mounted on panel, suggesting that it was once inlaid into a piece of furniture or wainscotting in a wealthy 16th-century home.",
"early_education_description": null,
"artlens_description": null,
"description": "While this small miniature, made with watercolor on parchment, depicts a scene from the Old Testament in the left foreground, its primary subject is the expansive rural scene, landscape, and distant hillside city beyond. Hans Bol combined realistic city views, based on his onsite observation, with imaginary scenes and narratives, appealing to his late-16th-century urban Netherlandish audience. The story of the Balaam and the Ass was associated with greed in the period. The miniature was likely paired with other scenes highlighting contemporary moral issues to be displayed together in a domestic setting.",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q115755103"
],
"internet_archive": [
"https://archive.org/details/clevelandart-2022.3-balaam-and-the-ass"
]
},
"citations": [
{
"citation": "Hulst, Roger Adolf d'. Dessins du XVe au XVIIIe sie\u0300cle: dans les collections prive\u0301es de Belgique. Bruxelles: Socie\u0301te\u0301 ge\u0301ne\u0301rale de banque, 1983.",
"page_number": "p. 46-47, no. 17",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Peters, Emily J., Laura Ritter, William Griswold, Klaus Albrecht Schro\u0308der, and Koenraad Jonckheere. Tales of the City: Drawing in the Netherlands from Bosch to Bruegel. Cleveland, OH : Cleveland Museum of Art, 2022.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and reproduced: p. 92-93, no.10",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Sotheby's (Firm). Master Works on Paper from Five Centuries. 2022.",
"page_number": "Lot 2",
"url": ""
}
],
"url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/2022.3",
"images": {
"annotation": null,
"web": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/2022.3/2022.3_web.jpg",
"width": "900",
"height": "614",
"filesize": "317801",
"filename": "2022.3_web.jpg"
},
"print": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/2022.3/2022.3_print.jpg",
"width": "3400",
"height": "2320",
"filesize": "3674799",
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},
"full": {
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"alternate_images": [
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"date_created": "2022-03-08T11:26:13",
"annotation": ""
}
],
"creditline": "John L. Severance Fund",
"image_credit": null,
"sketchfab_id": null,
"sketchfab_url": null,
"gallery_donor_text": null,
"athena_id": 452866,
"creators": [
{
"id": 1245,
"description": "Hans Bol (Flemish, 1534\u20131593)",
"extent": null,
"qualifier": null,
"role": "artist",
"biography": null,
"name_in_original_language": null,
"birth_year": "1534",
"death_year": "1593",
"use_in_caption": true,
"include_extent": false,
"weight": 1
}
],
"legal_status": "accessioned",
"accession_date": "2022-03-07T05:00:00Z",
"sortable_date": 1583,
"date_added_to_oa": null,
"date_text": "1583",
"collapse_artists": false,
"on_loan": false,
"recently_acquired": false,
"record_type": "object",
"conservation_statement": null,
"has_conservation_images": false,
"cover_accession_number": null,
"is_nazi_era_provenance": false,
"impression": null,
"alternate_titles": [],
"is_highlight": false,
"updated_at": "2026-05-29 09:04:13.308000"
}
}