Full title | Joseph's Brothers beg for Help |
---|---|
Artist | Pontormo |
Artist dates | 1494 - 1556/7 |
Series | Scenes from the Story of Joseph |
Date made | about 1515 |
Medium and support | Oil on wood |
Dimensions | 36.3 x 142.5 cm |
Acquisition credit | Bought with the aid of the Art Fund (Eugene Cremetti Fund), 1979 |
Inventory number | NG6453 |
Location | Not on display |
Collection | Main Collection |
This picture was commissioned to celebrate the marriage of Pierfrancesco Borgherini to Margherita Accaiuoli in 1515. It formed part of a series that decorated their bedroom in the Borgherini palace in Florence. Several paintings by Pontormo and Bacchiacca from the series are now in the National Gallery’s collection.
Joseph’s half-brothers sold him into slavery in Egypt. In this episode, the brothers arrive from Canaan (Palestine) to beg for help in the second year of famine (Genesis 42: 1–8). Not recognising their long-lost brother, the brothers prostrate themselves before Joseph, who is now Pharaoh’s overseer and sits in command on a classical triumphal chariot. On the right, grain is distributed from Pharaoh’s stores.
The inscriptions on the chariot allude to Christ’s title of Salvator Mundi (‘Saviour of the World’). Joseph has saved the Egyptians from starvation. A parallel was often made between the lives of Joseph and Christ.
This picture was commissioned to celebrate the marriage of the banker Pierfrancesco Borgherini to Margherita Accaiuoli in 1515. It formed part of a series of that decorated their bedroom in the Borgherini palace in Florence. The group of pictures by Florentine painters, known as The Story of Joseph: Scenes from the Borgherini Bedchamber, includes panels by Bacchiacca as well as Pontormo in the National Gallery’s collection. Granacci and Andrea del Sarto also contributed to the decorative scheme, which would have been one of the most sumptuous of the time.
Having been sold into slavery by his jealous half-brothers, Joseph was taken to Egypt and bought by Potiphar, the head of Pharaoh’s guard (Joseph sold to Potiphar). Joseph refused the sexual advances of Potiphar’s wife, who falsely accused him of rape and had him thrown into jail. When in prison Joseph interpreted the dreams of Pharaoh’s butler and baker, who had been imprisoned for offending him. Joseph foresaw that the butler would be reinstated but the baker would be hanged (Pharaoh with his Butler and Baker).
Joseph had asked the butler to mention him to Pharaoh and secure his release, but the butler forgot. Joseph remained in prison for another two years until Pharaoh himself had a dream of seven fat cows and seven lean cows, which none of his advisers could interpret. The butler remembered Joseph, who advised Pharaoh to store grain because seven plentiful years would be followed by seven years of famine. Pharaoh made Joseph his vizier, the second most powerful man in Egypt.
In this episode, Joseph’s brothers arrive from Canaan (Palestine) to beg for help in the second year of the famine. They do not recognise their long-lost brother Joseph, who does not speak to them in Hebrew or reveal his identity (Genesis 42: 1–8). The brothers prostrate themselves before Joseph, who sits in command on a classical triumphal chariot. On the right, grain is distributed from Pharaoh’s stores.
The inscriptions on the chariot allude to Christ’s title of Salvator Mundi (‘Saviour of the World’). Joseph has saved the Egyptians from starvation. A parallel was often made between the lives of Joseph and Christ, with Joseph’s story anticipating Christ’s.
The next episode in the story is told in Joseph receives his Brothers on their Second Visit to Egypt 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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