The Feast of Absalom

During a feast, wine deprives Amnon of any ability to resist. His weakness allows Absalom to carry out his scheme of revenge.

The Feast of Absalom

King David's son Absalom had an attractive sister, Tamar, as well as a half-brother named Amnon, the eldest of David's sons. Amnon fell in love with Tamar and one day enticed her into his bedroom, where he took advantage of her and then cast her off. Others learned of this outrage. David was grieved and angry but did nothing to punish his own son. Absalom felt that the rape should be kept secret, but he developed a simmering rancor toward Amnon because of his unworthy behavior. Two years went by and Absalom devised a scheme for revenge. One day during sheepshearing, Absalom arranged a feast, to which Amnon was invited. Absalom ordered his servants to watch his brother closely and to report when he was sufficiently drunk to be incapable of resisting assault. When the time came, the servants were ordered to kill Amnon, as revenge for the loss of Tamar's honor. Absalom fled the scene, and David, overwhelmed with grief at the death of his son, spent three years in mourning.

Sources

2 Samuel I 3

Iconography

This is a rare iconographical subject but seems to appear more frequently in the 17th century, when the pictorial language of the time was congenial to theatrical banquet scenes and there was a taste for crude violence and dramatic events

Mattia Preti, The Feast of Absalom, са. T657. Naples, Museo di Capodimonte