Rachel sitting on the Household Gods of Laban
Francesco Fernandi, called Imperiali (Milan 1679 – Rome 1740)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
circa 1720
Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
1372 x 2553 mm (54 x 100 1/2 in)
Place of origin
Rome
Order this imageCollection
Stourhead, Wiltshire
NT 732124
Caption
On her departure from the house of her father, Laban, Rachel stole scared figurines, ‘the household gods’, and hid them in a camel’s pack. Here she is concealing them from him by protesting her inability to get up due to her time of the month. Both she and her older sister, Leah, were married to Jacob, who was finally escaping to Canaan, after fourteen years of labour as payment for Rachel. After Laban discovers the theft he sets out in pursuit and soon catches up with them. Meanwhile his servants are searching a chest and Jacob is pointing out that he does not have the idols. The scene shows an episode from the Old Testament. Bought as a pair with The Sacrifice of Noah by Imperiali by Henry II Hoare, they were placed in the Picture Gallery built by Richard Colt Hoare at Stourhead and have remained there ever since.
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, Rachel sitting on the Household Gods of Laban by Francesco Fernandi, called Imperiali (Milan 1679 - Rome 1740), circa 1720. In the middle of a landscape, on their way home to Canaan, Rachel is seated, at the right, upon idols which she has stolen from Laban's house and hidden among the camel's trappings; behind whom stands a camel, on the right. Her father Laban, unaware of what she has done, stands in the centre addressing her, while a group of soldiers and other figures, including Jacob presumably search a chest behind him, on the left. The biblical scene shows an episode from the Old Testament book of Genesis 31:33-35.
Provenance
Acquired by Henry II Hoare (1705-85), in house by 1762 and thence by descent;given to the National Trust along with the house, its grounds, and the rest of the contents by Sir Henry Hugh Arthur Hoare, 6th Bt (1865 – 1947) in 1946
Credit line
Stourhead, The Hoare Collection (National Trust)
Makers and roles
Francesco Fernandi, called Imperiali (Milan 1679 – Rome 1740), artist
References
Walpole 1927-28 Paget Toynbee (ed.), 'Horace Walpole's Journals of Visits to Country Seats, etc.', 1760-62, Walpole Society XVI, 1927 -28 pp. 9-80, p.42 Stourhead 1785 Schedule of Pictures left by Henry Hoare at his death, 1785 Colt Hoare 1818 Sir Richard Colt Hoare, A Description of the House and Gardens at Stourhead...with a Catalogue of the Pictures, Salisbury 1800, Bath 1818, rev. 1822 Stourhead 1838: Inventory of Heir-Looms at Stourhead directed to be taken by the Will of the late Sir Richard Colt Hoare Bart. with the state and condition thereof, 1838 , no.354