TIEPOLO, Giovanni Battista
(b. 1696, Venezia, d. 1770, Madrid)

Rachel Hiding the Idols from Her Father Laban

1724-29
Fresco, 4000 x 5000 cm
Palazzo Patriarcale, Udine

The picture shows the centre scene on the wall of the Gallery.

The aged Laban stoops over his daughter and demands that she hand over the graven images that she has stolen. She refuses to do so. The action takes place in the encampment where Jacob's caravan rests on its way to Canaan. The staged character of the composition, imaginatively enriched with scenes from everyday life, obscures its Old Testament subject matter, reducing the latter to the status of a vague vision.




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