Antiochus IV of Syria, sick and injured by a fall from his chariot, dictates his will as surgeons bandage his leg. Etching by N. Hallé, 1738.

Antiochus IV lies on a bed in his tent, his armour abandoned on the floor beside him. He is purulent with "pain of the bowels" and "sore torments of the inner parts", infested with worms, and emitting "intolerable stink". He has also fallen violently from his chariot "so that having a sore fall, all the members of his body were much pained". On the left an elderly surgeon pours ointment on to his leg while a younger assistant changes his dressings. On the right a notary writes down Antiochus's last wil and testament, which Antiochus dictated "when he himself could not abide his own smell": instead of being sacked, Jerusalem should be set free; the Jews would be treated equally with the citizens of Athens; the holy temple of the Jews would be restored; and he himself would become a Jew. However, "for all this his pains would not cease: for the just judgment of God was come upon him: therefore despairing of his health, he wrote unto the Jews" a further apology and letter of goodwill, before he died

According to the second Book of Maccabees, IX: 4-28, Antiochus "thought to avenge upon the Jews the disgrace done unto him by those that made him flee. Therefore commanded he his chariotman to drive without ceasing, and to dispatch the journey, the judgment of God now following him. For he had spoken proudly in this sort, That he would come to Jerusalem and make it a common burying place of the Jews. But the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, smote him with an incurable and invisible plague: or as soon as he had spoken these words, a pain of the bowels that was remediless came upon him, and sore torments of the inner parts; And that most justly: for he had tormented other men's bowels with many and strange torments. Howbeit he nothing at all ceased from his bragging, but still was filled with pride, breathing out fire in his rage against the Jews, and commanding to haste the journey: but it came to pass that he fell down from his chariot, carried violently; so that having a sore fall, all the members of his body were much pained. ...So that the worms rose up out of the body of this wicked man, and whiles he lived in sorrow and pain, his flesh fell away, and the filthiness of his smell was noisome to all his army. And the man, that thought a little afore he could reach to the stars of heaven, no man could endure to carry for his intolerable stink. ... Thus the murderer and blasphemer having suffered most grievously, as he entreated other men, so died he a miserable death in a strange country in the mountains."

1738

1 print : etching

N. Hallé in et f. 1738.

[State II described by Prosper de Baudicour].

Yves Bruand et Michèle Hébert, Inventaire du fonds français, graveurs du XVIIIe siècle, Bibliothèque nationale, Département des estampes, tome 11, Paris 1970, p. 243 no. 2 ("Antiochus pansé après sa chute")

Prosper de Baudicour, Le peintre-graveur continué ... ouvrage faisant suite au Peintre-graveur français de M. Robert-Dumesnil, Paris 1859-1861, vol. 1, pp. 18-19, no. 2 ("2. Antiochus dictant ses dernières volontés. Rongé de plaies infectes, le roi, dans sa tente, est étendu sur un lit; de la main droite il montre le ciel dont il reçoit le châtiment, et dicte ses dernières volontés en faveur des Juifs; à droite, en avant d'une table ronde, un scribe, tenant sa plume de la main gauche, écoute, avant d'écrire, les paroles que le roi semble adresser à un vieillard debout près de lui. De l'autre côté, à gauche, un médecin, assisté de deux jeunes aides, panse la jambe du malade; et du même côté, sur le devant, on voit un réchaud où l'on brûle des parfums pour chasser l'infection. Composition de treize figures. A gauche, sous le trait carré, on lit: N. Hallé in et f. 1738 (1). Largeur: 240 millim. Hauteur, mesurée au milieu : 186 millim., dont 13 millim. de marge. On connaît quatre états de cette planche I. Avant toute lettre (2). II. C'est celui décrit. III. Le nom de l'artiste, gravé par lui à la pointe, a été effacé, et on a gravé un peu plus bas, à gauche : N. Hallé del. et sculp et à droite : No. 99 et plus bas encore, au milieu : à Paris chez Briceau rue St Honoré près l'Oratoire. III. Le nom de Briceau est en partie effacé, et l'estampe a été retouchée par des travaux au berceau pour la mettre plus à l'effet; tout le dessous de la tente est teinté en noir, et toutes les ombres de draperies ont été renforcées. ...")

Wellcome Collection 22450i