Jacob's Farewell to Benjamin
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
113 × 110.5 cm (52 9/16 × 43 1/2 in.); Framed: 161 × 139.1 × 8.6 cm (63 3/8 × 54 3/4 × 3 3/8 in.)
Classification
oil on canvas
Department
Painting and Sculpture of Europe
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
87633
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
This scene of kinship between men has been interpreted as the biblical figure Jacob granting permission to his youngest son, Benjamin, to travel with his brothers to Egypt. The artist, an unknown follower of Rembrandt van Rijn, conveyed Jacob’s ambivalent emotional state by presenting the boy with his back to the viewer. Rembrandt and his followers treated this subject many times, as the Protestant art market in the Dutch Republic valued scenes of faith and loyalty but lacked the Catholic intere...