Lot 180
180
Circle of Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (Seville 1618-1682)
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Circle of Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (Seville 1618-1682)

Jacob's Dream

Details
Circle of Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (Seville 1618-1682)
Jacob's Dream
oil on canvas
42 5/8 x 66 in. (108.3 x 167.7)
Provenance
Alejandro Maria Aguado, Marquis de Las Marismas de Guadalqivir (1785-1842); (+) Dubois, Paris, 20-28 March 1843, lot 51 (as Murillo); Anonymous sale, Christie's, Paris, 15 December 2004, lot 515 (as Circle of Murillo), where acquired by the present owner.
Literature
J.D.C. Guavard and L. Viardot, Galerie aguado: choix des principaux tableaux de la galerie de M. le Marquis de las Marismas de Guadalquivir, Paris 1939, reproduced plate 16 (engraving by Gavard); W.B. Scott, Murillo and the Spanish School of Painting, London and New York, 1873, reproduced plate 92 (engraving by J. Kernot);
C.B. Curtis, Velasquez et Murillo, London 1883, p.119, no.8;
G. Kubler and M. Soria, Art and Architecture in Spain and Portugal and their American Dominions 1500 to 1800, Baltimore 1959, p.388, note 8 (Ignacio de Iriarte);
I. Hempel Lipshutz, Spanish Paintings and the Franch Romantics, Cambridge 1977, p.238;
D. Angulo Iniguez, Murillo, Madrid 1981, vol.II, P.342, No.465 (as Francisco Antolinez).
Exhibited
New York, Widenstein, The Painter as Historian, 15 November-31 December 1962, no. 7.
Tel Aviv, Tela Aviv Museum of Art, Old Testament, Old Masters: The Bible in 16th-19th Century Art, 19 August-29 April 2006.
Engraved
By Jacques Dominique Charles Gavard, 1839;
By J. Kernott, 1873.
Special notice
No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 15% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

Lot Essay

Jacob's prophetic dream of a ladder with angels ascending to heaven (Gen. 28:10-22) while resting for the night on his journey to Harran, was a popular subject in Christian painting. Jacob dreamt that God spoke to him, promising him the land where he slept to his descendants, the Iraelites, and when he woke he built a pillar from stones, calling it the place of Bethel, or 'House of God'.
The darkened night scene depicted in the present work, to represent reality, is in direct contrast to the radiance of the heavenly ladder, the angels and God, while Jacob, asleep, represents the connection between the two worlds.

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