Isaac and Jacob is an oil on canvas painting by Jusepe de Ribera, executed in 1637, which since 1918 has been in the Prado Museum in Madrid.
Isaac and Jacob is an oil on canvas painting by Jusepe de Ribera, executed in 1637, which since 1918 has been in the Prado Museum in Madrid.
Nothing is known about who commissioned the painting for the Royal Collections, but in 1734 the work was in the Royal Alcázar of Madrid, possibly in the Hall of Mirrors, from which it had to be moved due to a fire that occurred in that year. It then went to the Royal Palace where it remained until after the War of Independence, when it was taken to the San Fernando Academy to finally move to the Prado Museum in 1854. [1]
The painting represents what is described in Genesis (27, 1-29), when Jacob, helped by his mother Rebekah, deceives his blind father Isaac to receive the blessing meant for his older brother, Esau. To carry out the deception, Jacob covers one arm with a sheepskin, imitating the hairy arms of his brother.
In the work, which all critics consider one of Ribera's most mature, we see the half-length characters, with Isaac lying on the bed feeling his arm, Jacob sitting on the bed and the mother, with a Vélazquez inspired look, encouraging her child to cheat. On the left we also see Esau returning from hunting.
Ribera creates an almost theatrical scene where with his chromatic skill and the marvelous use of a vibrant light he manages to make us feel the environment, almost touch the objects and transmit the touch of the fabrics, of the sheepskin and give the faces of the characters an amazing naturalism. Remarkable is the still life to the right of the canvas which, although it was a genre that Ribera hardly practiced, was a sure point of reference for the work on this subject by later painters.
The point of view of the work, whose focal point is considerably low, and the elongated format of the painting, suggests that it was painted to be viewed from below, perhaps positioned as an over-door or over-window. [2] [3]
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The Prado Museum, officially known as Museo Nacional del Prado, is the main Spanish national art museum, located in central Madrid. It is widely considered to house one of the world's finest collections of European art, dating from the 12th century to the early 20th century, based on the former Spanish royal collection, and the single best collection of Spanish art. Founded as a museum of paintings and sculpture in 1819, it also contains important collections of other types of works. The Prado Museum is one of the most visited sites in the world and is considered one of the greatest art museums in the world. The numerous works by Francisco Goya, the single most extensively represented artist, as well as by Hieronymus Bosch, El Greco, Peter Paul Rubens, Titian, and Diego Velázquez, are some of the highlights of the collection. Velázquez and his keen eye and sensibility were also responsible for bringing much of the museum's fine collection of Italian masters to Spain, now one of the largest outside Italy.
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The Pietà is a painting by José de Ribera, "The Españoleto", painted, signed and dated in 1633.
The Martyrdom of Saint Philip is a painting by Jusepe de Ribera from 1639.
Tityos is a 1632 painting, signed and dated by Jusepe de Ribera and showing the torture inflicted on the giant Tityos. It was part of a series of four paintings - the other three showed the tortures of Sisyphus, Tantalus and Ixion, but only those of Tityos and Ixion still survive, both now in the Prado Museum in Madrid.
Ixion is a 1632 oil painting, signed and dated by Jusepe de Ribera. It shows a scene from Classical mythology, of Ixion being tortured as the eternal punishment meted out by Zeus. It is one of a series of four paintings by Ribera of the four "Furies" or "Condemned" from Greek mythology. It is held by the Museo del Prado in Madrid, along with Ribera's painting of Tityos; the other two, of Sisyphus and Tantalus, are lost.
Democritus is an oil on canvas painting by Jusepe de Ribera, executed in 1630, now in the Prado Museum in Madrid. It is believed to depict the Ancient Greek philosopher Democritus.
The Martyrdom of Saint Andrew is a 1628 painting by Jusepe de Ribera.
The Ford or Landscape with Shepherds is a 1644 oil-on-canvas painting by the French artist Claude Lorrain, now in the Prado Museum in Madrid.
The Earthly Trinity with Saints and God the Father are a pair of c.1626-c.1635 oil on canvas paintings by Jusepe de Ribera, both now in the Museo nazionale di Capodimonte in Naples. Along with the Holy Family, the main work shows Bruno of Cologne, Benedict of Nursia, Bernardino of Siena and Bonaventure.
The Blind Sculptor is an oil on canvas painting by José de Ribera, signed and dated to 1632. Its origins are unknown - the first documentary reference to the work is a 1764 inventory of the collections at El Escorial, from which it moved to its present home at the Prado Museum in 1837.
