Rebecca and Eleazar at the Well

Giovanni Battista Piazzetta

Download hi-res image TITLE Rebecca and Eleazar at the Well
AUTHOR Giovanni Battista Piazzetta
DATE 1735 - 40
OBJECT TYPE AND MATERIAL Oil on canvas
DIMENSIONS cm 102 x 137
INVENTORY 2151
ROOM XXXV
Work on display

This picture, a drawing room painting originally in the Contarini collection in Venice, reveals a new, lighter touch in Piazzetta’s art. In this Bible scene, painted to resemble a pastoral idyll, Abraham’s servant Eleazar, whom he sent to seek a wife for his son Isaac, encounters Rebecca by a well. She offers him water and then discreetly accepts the gifts Abraham had sent with Eleazar for his future daughter-in-law.