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Lot Essay
The Old Testament figure of Jacob, after stealing his brother's blessing from his father, fled to Harran. Resting one night on a pillow of stones he dreamed of a ladder leading into heaven with angels going up and down. God from its top promised that Jacob's descendants, the Israelites, would once own the land. When he woke, he built an altar and poured a libation over it, calling the place Bethel, the house of God.
This tapestry is undoubtedly based on a design by Bernard van Orley (d. 1541/42) for a series depicting The Story of Jacob, which he designed shortly before 1535. That series was first woven by Willem de Kempeneer and a complete set of ten tapestries is in the Musèes Royaux d'Art et d'Histoire in Brussels. The designs were variously copied and re-edited; the offered panel retaining in reverse nearly identically the ladder with the angels and god above.
An original version of this scene is illustrated in A. Gray Bennett, Five Centuries of Tapestry from The Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, San Francisco, 1992, p.113.
This tapestry is undoubtedly based on a design by Bernard van Orley (d. 1541/42) for a series depicting The Story of Jacob, which he designed shortly before 1535. That series was first woven by Willem de Kempeneer and a complete set of ten tapestries is in the Musèes Royaux d'Art et d'Histoire in Brussels. The designs were variously copied and re-edited; the offered panel retaining in reverse nearly identically the ladder with the angels and god above.
An original version of this scene is illustrated in A. Gray Bennett, Five Centuries of Tapestry from The Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, San Francisco, 1992, p.113.