Laban reconciled with Jacob

Dr. Volker Manuth, who has confirmed the attribution to Jan Victors on the basis of photographs, has dated the present work to between circa 1655 and 1665. Victors signed another slightly larger picture of this subject at around the same period, now in the Szépművészeti Múzeum, Budapest (W. Sumowski, Gemälde der Rembrandt-Schüler, Landau, 1983, IV, no. 1774). This large canvas illustrates the culmination of the Old Testament history of Jacob and Laban. Jacob, having fled from his homeland, sought refuge and a livelihood with his uncle Laban, whose daughters, Leah and Rachel, he eventually married. After a series of disagreements, Jacob departed from Laban’s lands and Rachel stole the household gods from her father. Angered upon discovering that they were missing, Laban pursued them, insisting on searching Jacob’s tents for the statues. Rachel hid the stolen gods in a saddle bag and sat on them so as to prevent her father from discovering them. Failing to find the statues, Laban sought to make amends with his nephew, parting with him on good terms.