Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Copyright Status:
Public Domain
Accession Number:
B1981.25.36
Gallery Label:
Robert Bateman, a minor Pre-Raphaelite artist, enjoyed some success in Victorian London, and this painting is one of six he exhibited at the Royal Academy. The Pool of Bethesda in Jerusalem was believed to have miraculous healing powers with tradition asserting that an angel visited the waters, and the first person to enter the pool after the angel’s departure was sure of being cured. Biblical subjects like this provided Bateman with an opportunity to imitate fifteenth-century Italian painters, such as Piero della Francesca (ca. 1415–1492). Like other artists who worked in this Pre-Raphaelite style, he faced criticism in the press. A writer in the Athenaeum complained in May 1876 that The Pool of Bethesda featured “affections” that were virtues in earlier paintings, but were “sure to bring a clever painter of our time into contempt.” Gallery label for installation of YCBA collection, 2016
