Asher, son of Jacob
XVIII century. Oil on canvas.Not on display
This work is part of a series dedicated to the Patriarchs of Israel, sons of Jacob. The name of each of them appears in the upper right part of the table, preceded by the letter T, Tribe, and followed by the number that would correspond to each according to their order of birth. The set comes from the donation that the Duchess of Pastrana made to the Museum in 1889 and there are references to this series in the inventories of the House of the Infantado and Pastrana of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. In the "Catalogue of Paintings for the Link" of 1738, twelve works representing "The Twelve Tribes of the Jewish People", which may have been these, are cited, of which eight are preserved by the Prado Museum. The iconography of the series is derived from Flemish models, especially from the engravings made by the Flamenco artist Jaques de Gheyn II (Antwerp, 1565 - The Hague, 1629).
