Jacob's Dream (Spanish:El sueño de Jacob) is a 1639 oil-on-canvas painting by the Spanish Tenebrist painter José de Ribera (Lo Spagnoletto).

Description

It measures 179 by 233 centimetres (70in ×92in) and is in the Museo del Prado in Madrid.

Analysis

Jacob appears as a shepherd sleeping, resting on his left shoulder with a tree behind him. In the background on the other side is the ladder that he sees in his dream. It is not a wooden ladder but a ladder of light, by which angels are ascending and descending.

Influences

The American 20th-century abstract painter Helen Frankenthaler cited Ribera's work as an inspiration for her 1957 painting titled Jacob's Ladder, currently in the collection of The Museum of Modern Art in New York.

External links

  • , El Prado
  • , Issued in connection with an exhibition held Sept. 18-Nov. 29, 1992, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (see pages: 135–137).