Jonah Preaching at Nineveh

From the Getty Museum record

By turns minutely detailed and highly expressive, this independent drawing by the Austrian Rococo artist Johann Wolfgang Baumgartner depicts a lesser-known moment in the biblical tale of Jonah. After the famous incident in which he was swallowed and spit out by a whale, Jonah returns to the city of Nineveh to warn the inhabitants of their impending doom. Standing with his back to the viewer, Jonah shares word of God’s judgement as the Ninevite king and his retinue, in the center of the sheet, kneel before Jonah in repentance. Baumgartner renders the figures’ garments in gestural washes while he picks out their physical features in fine, quivering lines. Through gesture the artist likewise explores individual psychological responses to Jonah’s message: while the king entreaties Jonah, figures behind him and in the right margin have individual conversations about the situation. At left, a sitting figure seems to clutch the space between his eyes in a familiar sign of stress. With a very light touch, Baumgartner has likewise picked out the fantastical city of Nineveh in ink and white opaque watercolor.