Here is another biblical landscape of Claude Gellée. The painter Lorraine inspires them with some freedom, history tells us that Jacob Genesis, specifically the following pericope:
Jacob marched and son went to countries of the East. And now he saw a well in the countryside, near which were lying three flocks of sheep: it was the well that watered the flocks, but the stone which closed the opening was great. When all the flocks were gathered there, we rolled the stone from the mouth of the well, watering livestock, then put the stone in place on the well's mouth. [...]
He conversed with them again when Rachel arrived with livestock from his father, because she kept them. As soon as Jacob had seen Rachel the daughter of his uncle Laban, and the cattle of his uncle Laban, he approached, rolled the stone over the mouth of the well and watered the flock of his uncle Laban [ 1] .
The artist adds to the scene Leah's sister Rachel, the two women from becoming the successive wives of Jacob, because of the trickery of Laban.
On the table, we recognize the right foreground Jacob, two daughters Laban left, and the flock of "small cattle", that is to say sheep that drink from the well, whose lid was opened and deposited forward. A majestic grove overlooking the foreground as well as the entire work, it divides into two distinct halves. He obviously has its lushness to the well water, but perhaps it also makes reference to the descendants of Jacob, including two women birth fathers of the twelve tribes of Israel. Metaphor of the divine government of the world and history, as we have already suggested, the sun is hidden against the light behind the trees, illuminating silently providential event that takes place as well as magnificent scenery and delicate that it serves as a backdrop.
On this episode, we will discuss the first meeting of Christ with the Samaritan, which took place near the well of Jacob [2] :
Who drinks the water that will give him no 'will never thirst: the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life [3] .
And finally it should be remembered that the Fathers of the Church, the testimony of St. Thomas, interpret the succession of patriarchs such as the three theological virtues, and the two wives of Jacob as the two precepts charity:
Moral Abraham autem nobis fidei per exempla virtutem MEANINGS Christi, cum in eo legatur: Abraham credidit Deo, et reputatum est ei ad iustitiam. Isaac significat spem, quia interpretatur risus, fuit enim gaudium parentum; spes vero similiter est gaudium nostrum, dum aeterna bona sperare facit et de eis gaudere. Abraham ergo genuit Isaac quia fides generat spem. Iacob autem significat caritatem. Caritas enim amplectitur duas vitas: activam per dilectionem proximi, contemplativam per dilectionem Dei; activa per Liam, contemplativa per Rachel significatur. Lia enim laborans interpretatur, quia activa in labore est; Rachel visum principium, quia per contemplativam principium, id est Deus, videtur. Nascitur ergo Iacob de duobus parentibus, quia caritas nascitur de fide et spe; quod enim credimus et speramus, diligimus [4] .
Jacob son of Isaac son of Abraham, as charity is the daughter of Hope, who is the daughter of faith, and then Jacob married Leah and Rachel, which means life force and the contemplative life, love of neighbor and love of God.
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| Claude Lorrain, Landscape with Jacob, Rachel and Leah at the well, 1666. St. Petersburg, the Hermitage Museum. |
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