Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

Jacob Obtaining His Father's Blessing

Domenico Campagnola
approximately 1500-1564

Jacob Obtaining His Father's Blessing

after 1520
10 11/16 x 15 7/8 inches (271 x 405 mm)
Pen and brown ink on paper; framing lines in pen and brown ink.
I, 66

Purchased by Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913) in 1909.

Notes
Watermark: none.
Description

The subject of the present drawing is The Stolen Blessing as told in the book of Genesis (25:19-34; 27; 28:1-5). In this episode, Jacob contrives, at Rebecca’s instigation, to deprive Esau of his father’s blessing. When Isaac was old and nearly blind, he sends Esau out to hunt deer and cook it for him, “that I may give you my blessing before I die.” Rebecca overhears and when Esau leaves to go hunting, instructs Jacob to take Esau’s place in order to obtain the blessing. In the Morgan Library drawing, Isaac is propped up in his bed, blindly reaching to bless Jacob, who kneels at the bedside. The figure at left is probably scheming Rebecca, who watches over her shoulder for the return of Esau, seen in the upper left, with his hunting dogs and with a young deer on his back.

Although the Tietzes considered the drawing to be a late workshop creation, it is considered here to be by Domenico Campagnola. On stylistic grounds, the drawing appears to date from the artist’s mature period.

Inscriptions/Markings
Inscribed at lower right, in pen and brown ink, "Campagnolo"; on verso in graphite, "26 / 5".
Associated names
Murray, Charles Fairfax, 1849-1919, former owner.
Morgan, J. Pierpont (John Pierpont), 1837-1913, former owner.
Bibliography
Tietze and Tietze-Conrat 1944, 129, no. 511; Nickel 2017, 95.
Collection J. Pierpont Morgan : Drawings by the Old Masters Formed by C. Fairfax Murray. London : Privately printed, 1905-1912, I, 66.
Classification
Century Drawings
School
Department