Period: 17th century
Sold Oil on canvas painting measuring 67 x 87 cm unframed and 72 x 92 cm framed, depicting two religious scenes: Joseph Sold by his brothers and The brothers showing Joseph's bloody coat, staging his death. One day Joseph and his younger brother Benjamin, the two sons of Jacob and the now deceased Rachel, return to Canaan to find their father and stepbrothers. That evening, during dinner, Joseph recounts a dream in which he sees all his brothers and his father bowing down to him. Jacob understands that Joseph, thanks to the power to predict the future through dreams, is a true miracle of God and makes him the most powerful of the brothers. Unfortunately, this decision drastically increases the anger of his stepbrothers, particularly the firstborn Ruben and the second-born Simeon, who are informed of everything by the other stepbrothers when they meet them at the sheep market the day after dinner. Ruben then decides, even against Jacob's will, to lead the livestock and sell it in Joseph's place; an idea approved by everyone except Joseph, who left Benjamin in Canaan with Jacob and says that his father's will should not be contradicted. Ruben is shocked, while Simeon, after a brief scuffle with Joseph, knocks him unconscious by hitting him in the back of the head with a stone. Just at that moment, a caravan of slave traders arrives and offers the brothers a high price for a slave. The brothers agree to sell Joseph. Ruben feels insecure but is convinced by Simeon, who is quite proud of his horrible prank. After selling Joseph, Simeon and the other brothers stain the tunic torn from Joseph with the blood of a lamb and take it to Jacob and Benjamin to make them believe he is dead. The painting belongs to the central phase of the 17th century Flemish school, when the search for the monumentality of the figures and the balance of the composition prevail over the extravagance of the brushstroke and the contrasts of tones. The main characteristics of the painting are the airy vastness of the panoramas and the sense of diffused luminosity, which recall the free French art with a slight neoclassical note. The paintings and art objects published here are my exclusive property and, consequently, are always available to be viewed in person, by appointment, at my exhibition venues located in Sanremo and Brescia. The work, like all our objects, is sold with a FIMA photographic certificate of authenticity and lawful provenance; this document identifies the object, adding value to the item. We personally handle and organize the packaging and shipping of works of art with insurance worldwide. Dr. Riccardo Moneghini Art Historian