Pier Francesco Mola
Italian, 1612-1666
Joseph and his Brethren
INV-1066
Pier Francesco Mola
Italian, 1612-1666c. 1657
Joseph and his Brethren
Pier Francesco Mola Italian, 1612-1666 →etchingprint
Date
c. 1657
Medium
Etching on cream laid paper
Dimensions
35.3 × 43.6 cm (13 15/16 × 17 3/16 in.)
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Location
Chicago, IL
Credit
The Wallace L. DeWolf and Joseph Brooks Fair Collections
The largest and most ambitious of Pier Francesco Mola’s small oeuvre of five etchings, this composition is related to a fresco of the same biblical subject painted by the artist in the Quirinal Palace in Rome. Joseph is shown pardoning his 11 brothers, who jealously sold him into slavery in his youth. As the distant pyramid suggests, the scene takes place in Egypt, where Joseph became an important advisor to the pharaoh, saving the country from famine. His brothers, who remained in Canaan, were starving until they sought Egypt’s help and were thus reunited with Joseph.
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