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Original fileAbout This Work
The prophet is depicted as an elderly, bearded man wearing a long robe and a soft cap, holding a thick volume under his right arm. A large stringed instrument, similar to a viol, rests against a rock behind him alongside its bow. In the background, a fortified city sits among hills, representing the urban centers of Israel or Judah that were the focus of his prophecies.
Micah is one of the twelve Minor Prophets; in the Renaissance, such figures were often integrated into Neoplatonic frameworks as recipients of 'furor divinus' (divine frenzy). The inclusion of the viol suggests a connection between prophetic revelation and the 'music of the spheres' or divine harmony, a concept central to the thought of Marsilio Ficino and later esotericists.
Inscriptions
MICHEAS MICHEAS
Connected Texts
Marsilio Ficino
Ficino's theories on 'divine madness' and the use of music to attune the soul to celestial influences provide a context for depicting a prophet with a musical instrument.
Book of Micah
The primary scriptural source for the figure and his warnings to Samaria and Jerusalem.
Collections
Provenance & Source
Object
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
paper
height 124 mm x width 78 mm
religious
Linked Data
AI AI-cataloged fields generated by gemini-3-flash-preview on April 2, 2026. Getty identifiers are AI-inferred and may require verification.