Full title | Joseph receives his Brothers on their Second Visit to Egypt |
---|---|
Artist | Bacchiacca |
Artist dates | 1495 - 1557 |
Series | Scenes from the Story of Joseph |
Date made | probably 1515 |
Medium and support | Oil on wood |
Dimensions | 36.2 x 142.2 cm |
Acquisition credit | Bought, 1886 |
Inventory number | NG1218 |
Location | Not on display |
Collection | Main Collection |
This painting is one of a series of panels that decorated the bedchamber of the Borgherini palace in Florence. Together, they tell the life of Joseph from the Old Testament (Genesis 43).
Joseph, who had been sold into slavery in Egypt as a boy by his half-brothers, foretold a famine from a dream Pharaoh had, and advised him to stockpile grain. Made vizier of Egypt, Joseph received his half-brothers who came in search of grain, but they did not recognise him. He accused them of spying and demanded that they bring their younger brother to Egypt to prove their honesty.
In this painting, they return to Egypt with their youngest brother, Benjamin – the little boy wearing blue – and gifts from their father. They present the gifts to Joseph in the centre, still not realising he is the brother they sold. Joseph sends them back home with a precious cup hidden in Benjamin’s sack. The outline of the cup is visible below Benjamin’s hand.
This painting is one of a series of panels that decorated a bedchamber in the Borgherini palace in Florence. Together, they tell the story of Joseph from the Old Testament. This panel shows Joseph visited by his brothers (Genesis 43).
Having been sold into slavery by his jealous half-brothers and falsely accused of rape by his master Potiphar’s wife (Joseph sold to Potiphar), Joseph ends up in the Pharaoh of Egypt’s prison, where he interprets the dreams of Pharaoh’s butler and baker (Pharaoh with his Butler and Baker). The butler remembers Joseph’s ability to interpret dreams when Pharaoh has a dream of seven fat calves followed by seven lean calves. Joseph says that the dream means that seven years of plenty will be followed by seven years of famine and advises Pharaoh to stockpile grain.
Joseph’s brothers have come to Egypt in search of grain (Joseph’s Brothers beg for Help). Joseph, now vizier of Egypt, accuses his half-brothers, who do not recognise him, of spying. When the brothers tell Joseph that they have a younger brother at home, Joseph demands that they bring him to Egypt. He imprisons three of his brothers and sends three back home with their sacks and their purses full. The brothers persuade their father Jacob to allow them to return to Egypt with their younger brother, Benjamin, to prove they are honest men.
In this painting, they return to Egypt with Benjamin – the little boy wearing blue – and gifts from their father. They present the gifts to Joseph in the centre, still not realising he is their long lost-brother. Joseph then sends his brothers back home but with a cup hidden in Benjamin’s sack. The outline of the cup is visible below Benjamin’s hand.
The same figures appear in the panel three times as Bacchiacca tells the different parts of the story. This technique is known as continuous narrative. The different characters appear wearing the same clothes in the other panel of the series by Bacchiacca, so it is possible to read the story clearly across both. However, Bacchiacca’s figures differ in appearance and clothing from those in the panels by Pontormo, where the people have the oval faces and dark, round eye sockets typical of his own figure style.
The next part of the story is told in Joseph pardons his Brothers, also by Bacchiacca.
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Scenes from the Story of Joseph
These six pictures by Pontormo and Bacchiacca were part of a larger series of panel paintings commissioned to celebrate the marriage of Pierfrancesco Borgherini to Margherita Accaiuoli in 1515. The series decorated the couple’s bedroom in the Borgherini palace in Florence. Francesco Granacci and Andrea del Sarto also contributed to the decorative scheme, which would have been one of the most sumptuous of the time. The paintings, telling the story of Joseph from the Old Testament (Genesis 39), would have been set into the wall panelling and furniture.
Pontormo’s interest in the emerging new style known as Mannerism – a reaction against the harmony, proportion and naturalism of High Renaissance art – is evident in his bright colours, disconcertingly unnatural approach to space, elongated figures and spiralling compositions. Bacchiacca’s scenes are expressive and dramatic but stylistically more conventional.
These six pictures by Pontormo and Bacchiacca were part of a larger series of panel paintings commissioned to celebrate Pierfrancesco Borgherini’s marriage to Margherita Accaiuoli in 1515. Granacci and Andrea del Sarto also contributed to the decorative scheme for the marital bedchamber in the Borgherini palace in Florence, which was commissioned by Borgherini’s father and would have been one of the most sumptuous of the time. Fourteen of the panels survive. The other panels are Granacci’s Joseph presents his Father and his Brothers to the Pharoah (Uffizi, Florence) and his tondo of the Holy Trinity (Gemäldegalerie, Berlin); Andrea del Sarto’s two Stories of Joseph (Galleria Palatina, Florence); Bacchiacca’s four Stories of Joseph (Galleria Borghese, Rome).
The pictures tell the story of Joseph from the Old Testament (Genesis 39). They were originally set into the sumptuous walnut wall panelling, the marriage bed, the chairs and storage chests. The story of Joseph was fashionable at the time for furniture decoration and – with Joseph’s coat of many colours, his ability to interpret dreams, the story’s emphasis on success, family and forgiveness – was a particularly appropriate subject for a bedchamber.
Joseph was his father’s favourite son and had been given a coat of many colours by him. His jealous half-brothers sold Joseph to a caravan of Ishmaelite merchants taking perfumes and spices to Egypt. The brothers smeared Joseph’s coat with goat blood and told their father that he was dead.
Joseph sold to Potiphar by Pontormo shows Joseph standing before his new master, Potiphar, the captain of the Egyptian Pharaoh’s guard. Joseph became overseer of Potiphar’s household. However, after he refused the sexual advances of Potiphar’s wife and she falsely accused him of rape, he was thrown into jail. There Joseph interpreted the dreams of Pharaoh’s butler and baker. As Joseph predicted, Pharaoh spared the butler but had the baker killed.
Two years later, Pharoah had a mysterious dream that none of his advisers could understand. Joseph explained that Pharaoh’s dream of seven fat cows followed by seven thin cows meant that seven years of plenty would be followed by seven years of famine, and he advised Pharaoh to stockpile grain. Pharaoh made Joseph his vizier, the second most powerful man in Egypt.
Having travelled from Canaan to Egypt in the second year of the famine, Joseph’s brothers beg for help, but they do not recognise their long-lost brother. Joseph accuses his half-brothers of spying and demands that they bring their younger brother to Egypt to prove their honesty. In Joseph receives his Brothers on their Second Visit to Egypt by Bacchiacca the brothers return to Egypt with their youngest brother, Benjamin. Joseph sends the brothers home but hides a cup in Benjamin’s sack. In Joseph pardons his Brothers, also by Bacchiacca, the brothers are brought back to Joseph, with Benjamin a prisoner. Joseph threatens to enslave Benjamin, but when his brother Judah offers to take Benjamin’s place, Joseph reveals his true identity. He forgives his brothers for selling him into slavery. In the last painting of the series, Joseph with Jacob in Egypt, the stories of Joseph and his father are combined as four scenes in a continuous narrative. The story ends with the elderly Jacob on his deathbed blessing Joseph’s sons.
The story of Jacob and Joseph, and the enduring love between them, was an appropriate one for a father to commission for the decoration of his own son’s bedchamber.






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