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Micha

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Original file
PrintCC0 1.0

Micha

Aegidius Sadeler

1577
paper
height 124 mm x width 78 mm
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

About 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.

Micahbookviolbow71O2131A23148C735

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.

Provenance & Source

Object

Holding Institution

Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Medium

paper

Dimensions

height 124 mm x width 78 mm

GenreAI

religious

Digital Source

Source

Rijksmuseum · CC0 1.0

Original Resolution

2960 × 4682 px

Harvested

March 25, 2026

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.

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