Benjamin, 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 one of them appears in the upper right part of the painting, preceded by the letter T, for Tribe, and followed by the number that would correspond to each one 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 Casa del Infantado and Pastrana of the XVII and XVIII centuries. In the “Pliego de Inventario de Pinturas para el Vínculo” of 1738, twelve works representing “Las doce tribus del Pueblo Ebreo” (The twelve tribes of the Hebrew People) are mentioned, of which the Prado Museum preserves eight. The iconography of the series derives from Flemish models, especially from the engravings made by the Flemish Jaques de Gheyn II (Antwerp, 1565 - The Hague, 1629).
Díaz Pascual, Concha, Los Patriarcas del Museo del Prado. Cuaderno de Sofonisba, http://cuadernodesofonisba.blogspot.com/2020/06/los-patriarcas-del-museo-del-prado.html, 2020
