Another example from the Museum's extensive Dewar collection, this from the artist's series of Bible illustrations he did on spec, hoping to qualify for church funding for a complete series. Dewar was down on his luck at the time and desperate for steady work, since his "Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse" engraving had been given an R rating for violence instead of the hoped-for PG, which cost him the school textbook business for that particular picture.

Not much of a reader, and struggling with the nearly illegible German Bible blackletter typefaces that were so popular at that time, Dewar interpreted freely, and the resulting illustrations were considered somewhat less than perfectly suitable. For instance, it is unlikely that Noah's Ark had a full array of brass cannon.

The "Cabbage of Temptation" as an alternative to the traditional apple may also have been prompted by economic motives, as he was an investor in his brother's cabbage farm. It may likewise account for the presence of all the sauerkraut in Dewar's version of the Last Supper, as well as the illustration for the Miracle of the Loaves and Cabbages.

 

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