Jacob and Esau
Flemish
Category
Tapestries
Date
circa 1660 - circa 1680
Materials
Tapestry, wool and silk, 5 warps per cm
Measurements
2.30 m (H); 3.85 m (W)
Place of origin
Belgium
Order this imageCollection
Blickling Hall, Norfolk
NT 355710
Summary
Tapestry, wool and silk, 5 warps per cm, Jacob and Esau, Flemish, possible Antwerp, c. 1660-1680. The tapestry shows the meeting of the brothers Jacob and Esau, who stand in the centre: Jacob, dressed as a shepherd and holding a crook, bending to kiss his brother's hand, and Esau, the soldier, wearing armour, a sword and a cloak. Behind Jacob on the left are his wives and children, and Esau is accompanied by a page carrying his helmet and two armed men. In the side borders putti climb among garlands and baskets of fruit to form a column, and at the top swags of fruit and leaves hang over the main scene. There is no lower border.
Full description
The event depicted is the meeting of the estranged twin brothers Jacob and Esau, the sons of Isaac and Rebecca (Gen. 33). The military leader Esau came to meet his brother with 400 men, and Jacob came with his four wives Rachel and Leah, the daughters of Laban, Bilhah and Zilpah, their two ‘handmaidens’, and their eleven sons. Jacob was afraid that his brother might harm his wives and children, so he placed the handmaidens and their sons at the head of the procession, and Rachel, his favourite, and her son Joseph, at the back. But when they met the brothers were instantly reconciled: “and Esau ran to meet him, and embraced him, and fell on his neck, and kissed him: and they wept” (Gen.33.4). The woman kneeling behind Jacob is presumably one of his handmaidens, Bilhah or Zilpah, and Rachel may be the woman at further back on the left. The tapestry can be dated to c. 1660-160 on stylistic grounds, and based on the style of the border. It is unsigned but may have been woven in Antwerp. The tapestry was only installed in the Library in the mid twentieth century, and its prior whereabouts are unknown. (Helen Wyld, 2011)
Provenance
Bequeathed with the hall and contents to the National Trust by Philip, 11th Marquess of Lothian (1882-1940)
Credit line
Blickling Hall, The Lothian Collection (The National Trust)
Makers and roles
Flemish, workshop possibly Antwerp , workshop