On-line gallery
- Reference number
- P01117
- Author
- Ribera, José de
- Title
- Jacob’s Dream
- Chronology
- 1639
- Technique
- Oil
- Support
- Canvas
- Measures
- 179 cm x 233 cm
- School
- Spanish
- Theme
- Religon. Old Testament
- Shown
- Yes
- Entrance
- RoyalCollection
- Procedence
- Royal Collection
This painting tells of Jacob the
Patriarch’s mysterious dream, as
told in Genesis. He appears asleep,
lying on his left shoulder with a
tree behind him. On the other side
is the ladder of light, by which
the angels ascend and
descend.
This subject demonstrates Ribera’s
skill at constructing metaphoric
discourse. He uses the image of a
shepherd resting in the countryside
to describe one of the best-known
Bible stories. The foreground view
of the solidly constructed figure
and the scene’s realistic features
bring realism to the miraculous
dream described in a ray of light
under a blue and gray sky.
Here, Ribera offers one of the
numerous proofs of his delicate
sense of color and his exquisite
compositional capacity, masterfully
placing the foreground volumes in
diagonal contraposition.
This is probably one of the
paintings mentioned in 1658 in the
inventory of don Jerónimo de la
Torre, and it remained in his
family until 1718. It reappeared in
1746 among Isabel Farnesio’s
paintings, attributed to
Murillo.
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