The meeting of Jacob and Laban

Giuliano Briganti (Pietro da Cortona, 1982, pp. 209-10), lists four versions of this composition; of those, the picture in the Louvre, Paris (ibid., no. 58, pl. 158) is generally regarded as the prime, almost certainly executed along with a pendant, Laban searching for his Idols (Bristol, City Art Gallery; ibid, pp. 210-11, no. 61, pl. 157), for the Barberini family in circa 1630-5. The other versions are those formerly in the Rumjatzeff Museum, Moscow (ibid., p. 210, no. 60; tentatively accepted as autograph on the basis of an old photograph), formerly in the Bamberg Museum, and formerly in an English private collection (ibid., p. 210, no. 59). It is possible that the last of those may be the present work, although its size was given as 195 x 175 cm.; it was published by Irma A. Richter, 'A Rediscovered Painting by Pietro da Cortona', Apollo, XIV, 83, November 1931, p. 286, pl. 2, as the prime version.

We are grateful to Dottore Mina Gregori and Professore Giuliano Briganti for their assistance in cataloguing this lot.