The painting narrates the mysterious dream of the patriarch jacob, as recounted in genesis, who appears asleep, lying on his left arm. Behind him is a tree and on the other side the ladder of light on which the angels go up and down. The matter shows ribera's technical ability to construct a metaphorical discourse. Through the representation of a shepherd lying to rest in the field, it describes one of the best-known biblical episodes. The close-up view of the solidly constructed character and the realistic features of the scene serve to make true the miraculous dream, which is described in a beam of light under a blue and gray sky. Ribera gives here one of his numerous proofs of his delicate sense of color and his exquisite capacity for composition, by diagonally contrasting the volumes of the foreground. It is probably one of the paintings cited in 1658 in the inventory of don jerónimo de la torre, remaining in the possession of his family until 1718. In 1746 it reappeared among the paintings of queen isabel de farnesio with attribution to murillo. Object Type: painting. Genre: religious art. Date: 1639. Place of creation: Spain. Dimensions: height: 179 cm (70.4 in); width: 233 cm (91.7 in). Medium: oil on canvas. Collection: Museo del Prado. El sueño de Jacob, por José de Ribera
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