Artwork story
About The Meeting of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, with the Four Elements
The artist and artwork
An unidentified British maker stitched The Meeting of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, with the Four Elements around 1700. This is an embroidered picture, not a painting: silk and wool threads cross canvas in tent, cross, and couching stitches, with mica added. The panel measures twenty and a quarter by twenty-four and three-eighths inches. Beneath a blue canopy, an enthroned Solomon receives the kneeling queen and attendants. The Met records neither maker nor workshop, so the piece cannot be assigned to a named embroiderer, or assumed to have been made by a woman.
The world around it
The picture belongs to the late flowering of English secular embroidery under the Stuart monarchy. The Met explains that needlework moved beyond church vestments into domestic decoration and that printed pattern books circulated motifs. Professional and amateur makers, men and women, adults and children, practiced the art. Elaborate needlework was especially important in many girls' education and could signify diligence and piety. Around 1700, faith, monarchy, nature, skill, and display could thus be stitched into one household image.
A detail to notice
The royal audience sits inside a crowded visual encyclopedia. Four seated figures occupy garden-like zones above and below, matching the title's four elements without forcing viewers to identify each one from attributes alone. A lion, spotted leopard, stag, eagle, owl, parrot, fish, butterfly, and snail form a miniature bestiary; oversized flowers and a human-faced sun add to the spectacle. Mica named in the material record would have made selected details catch changing light. Another 1670s British casket in The Met puts Solomon and Sheba on its lid, showing the royal encounter migrating across domestic needlework forms.
Look closer: materials, scale, and subjects
The recorded object is embroidered picture made in Canvas worked with silk and wool thread, mica; tent, cross, and couching stitches and held in the European Sculpture and Decorative Arts department.
Recorded dimensions include H. 20 1/4 x W. 24 3/8 inches (51.4 x 61.9 cm);; Framed: H. 22 1/2 x W. 24 3/4 x D. 1 1/4 inches (57.2 x 62.9 x 3.2 cm).
Subject terms include Animals, Birds, Kings, Queens, Men, and Women. Treat them as guideposts, not a complete interpretation.
Collection history and public-domain source
The collection credit line is Gift of Irwin Untermyer, 1964.
The individual artwork page and official image were verified as Public Domain on 2026-08-23.
No Context Gallery independently uses the public-domain image. The source museum has not endorsed, sponsored, or affiliated itself with these products.
Research sources
See the products currently available with this artwork. Product choices appear only when the exact item is published, in stock, and available to purchase.
