Flemish school of the sixteenth century. Follower... Lot n° 43

Flemish school of the sixteenth century. Follower of JOACHIM PATINIR (Dinant, ca. 1480-Antwerp, 1524). "Jacob's Dream". Oil on oak panel of the sixteenth century. Measurements: 63 x 78 cm; 74 x 89 cm (frame). The author of the present panel, close to the pictorial guidelines of Joachim Patinir, offers us the scene of Jacob's dream. The story of Genesis tells us that Jacob left Beer-sheba in the direction of Haran. By chance he came to a place and stayed there to spend the night, because the sun had already set. And he took a stone from there, and put it on as a pillow, and lay down to sleep in that place. And he had a dream: a stairway resting on the ground with its top touching the sky. Angels of God were ascending and descending it. The Lord stood upon it and said, "I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. The land on which you are lying, I will give it to you and your descendants. Your descendants will multiply like the dust of the earth, and you will occupy the east and the west, the north and the south; and all the nations of the world will be called blessed because of you and your descendants. I am with thee; I will keep thee whithersoever thou goest, and will bring thee again to this land, and will not forsake thee, until I have fulfilled that which I have promised." When Jacob awoke, he said, "Truly the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it." And, in awe, he added, "How terrible is this place; it is but the house of God and the gate of heaven." Joachim Patinir is considered the first Flemish landscape painter. In this genre, his works are characterized by a high horizon, revealing much terrain, pointed and fantastic rocky mountains, mixing the real with the symbolic, and with the use of subjects as a mere pretext to show these views (thus anticipating landscape as an independent genre). At first his style was influenced by Bosch and, to a lesser extent apparently, Gerard David. It is possible that he first worked in Bruges, where he came into contact with the work of Gérard David. Like this master, he is quoted in 1515 in Antwerp, working as a teacher. Here he would meet Albrecht Dürer, initiating their friendship. He would collaborate with his friend Quinten Massys in certain works. He would achieve great fame, especially at the end of his career, for his execution and creativity, above all. His work is preserved only in some important private collections, and in certain institutions such as the Prado Museum in Madrid, the Staatliche Kunsthalle in Karlsruhe, the Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten in Antwerp, the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, the Royal Monastery of San Lorenzo de El Escorial (Madrid), the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, the Louvre Museum in Paris, etc.