Jacob's Journey
Second half of the XVI century.On display elsewhere
As Arslan points out, this is the best known version of the Partenza per Canaan (Venice, Palazzo Ducale; 150 x 205 cm) which Jacopo Bassano painted for the Venetian patrician Jacopo Contarini, whose descendant, Bertucci Contarini, donated at the beginning of the 18th century to the Palazzo del Governo in Venice, where it is mentioned as hanging in 1733. The original, dated to approximately 1579, is the last and most grandiose rendering of a theme that was very dear to Jacopo and which he first painted in 1560. On this occasion, he reused the basic composition of similar characteristics of his Return of Tobias, executed around 1573 (Dresden, Gemäldegalerie), endowing it with a panoramic fullness (in no other work is the landscape given such prominence with respect to the human figures), and enhancing its crepuscular tone. The painting illustrates Jacob setting off on his journey to Canaan (Genesis 31: 17-18), and Jacopo successfully conveys the feeling of departure by means of the zigzagging arrangement of the procession, which moves progressively away from the spectator and from the picture plane towards a destination marked by the jutting rock of Gilead in the distance.
The Prado version, which faithfully reproduces the original, is nonetheless more rectangular, probably because it has been trimmed at the top; the 1686 inventory of the Madrid Alcázar describes it as being two varas high, some 22 centimetres more than its current size. Even so, the biggest difference is the lighting. The twilight of the original has completely disappeared and with it the richly suggestive contrast between the illuminated background and an intermediate area of darkness which served to portray the journey as a pilgrimage towards salvation. The authorship of this excellent replica should be attributed to Francesco, whose hallmark is clearly visible in the treatment of the landscape and the figures, which are painted with less broken brushstrokes. Although the artist may have used a coloured sketch (Spilimbergo, private collection) to execute this work, such is its resemblance to the original that he must have been aware of the latter (Text drawn from Falomir, M.: Los Bassano en la España del Siglo de Oro, Museo Nacional del Prado, 2001, pp. 212-213).
