Untitled (Fall of Paul)

The two graphics are representative of countless artworks depicting the Fall of Paul. The engravers Ragot and de Jode dramatically heighten the events before Damascus to a climax. No mount is mentioned in the Bible. However, artists of the past frequently depicted the fall as a chaotic scene with an entourage and horses.

François Ragot executed his engraving based on a painting by Peter Paul Rubens. The painter's original work came from the former Kaiser Friedrich Museum in Berlin (now the Bode Museum).

It was presumably destroyed in May 1945 during one of the two devastating fires at the Friedrichshain flak tower [external link]. However, the oil sketch serving as a preliminary study for the painting has survived and is held at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford.

Inscriptions:
Ragot:
Saulus Iter faciebat Damscum ut discipulos Domini vinctos
perduceret in Hierusalem, cum subito circumfulsit cum lux de
coelo et cadens in terram audiuit vocem dicentem Saule &c. Ego
sum Iesus quem tu perfequeris. Act.ap. Cap. 9 /

[Saul was on his way to Damascus to bring the Lord's disciples
in chains to Jerusalem, when suddenly a light from heaven shone around him; he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying: "Saul... I am Jesus, whom you persecute."]

de Jode:
Sternitur in terram caelesti fulmine Saulus, Vasque fit
electum Paulus abhoste die. Acto:9 /

[Saul is cast to the ground by a heavenly bolt of lightning, and Paul becomes a chosen vessel on that day.]