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Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld, Ruth in Boaz's Field, 1828
Boaz, in a red cloak and a broad hat, has stopped on the path and speaks to the stranger. Ruth stands before him with lowered eyes, the gleaned ears in her arm. Behind her the reapers bend to their work.
Schnorr von Carolsfeld belonged to the Nazarenes, the German painters in Rome who wanted to renew religious art from Raphael and Dürer. He painted this picture in 1828, soon after his return from Italy. Three decades later he published his Bible in Pictures, 240 woodcuts that hung in countless German homes.
Ruth does not look at him. The ears she has gathered lie in the crook of her arm.
Boaz and the servant who is set over the reapers. Boaz has just asked him: “Whose damsel is this?”
