(Pistoia 1606–1681 Rome)
Jacob’s encounter with Rachel and Laban,
signed and dated lower right: Hyacinthus Gemignanus/P... 1653,
oil on unlined canvas, 150 x 214 cm, framed

Fragments of a Rospigliosi coat-of-arms on the stretcher.

Provenance:
probably executed for the Rospigliosi family;
Private European collection;
where purchased by the present owner

The present painting depicts a scene from an episode in the Old Testament (Genesis 29:13–14): Jacob’s encounter with Rachel and Laban at the well, where Rachel was tending her father’s sheep. Jacob fell in love with Rachel and asked Laban for her hand in marriage. In return for seven years of unpaid labour for Laban, Jacob would receive Rachel as his wife.

Themes from the Old Testament in various sizes can repeatedly be found in Gimignani’s oeuvre, particularly during the 1630s, such as Rachel Hiding the Idols in the Corsini Collection, Florence, signed and dated HYACINTHUS GIMIGNANUS PISTORIENISIS. A.S. 1638 (248 x 349 cm). The painting Jacob and Rachel at the Well in the Palazzo Pitti in Florence, which most likely belonged to the Medici family, seems to date from the 1650s. However, the painting in Florence, which is smaller than the present composition, is more crowded and its landscape is different. The arrangement of the figures on a stage is similar to the present picture and is still close to the compositional approach of Pietro da Cortona, Gimignani’s teacher at the beginning of his Roman period (from 1630 onwards).

In 1652, Giacinto Gimignani and his family moved to Florence, where he stayed until 1661. The present painting dates from this period. The fragment of a Rospigliosi coat-of-arms on the stretcher suggests that the commission came directly from Pistoia, Gimignani’s native town and also the birthplace of his most important patron, Giulio Rospigliosi. In 1667, following a long career in the church in Rome that had begun in the 1630s, Giulio ascended the papal throne as Clement IX. His pontificate ended in 1669. Between 1652 and 1654, Gimignani completed as many as twenty-five compositions featuring themes from the Old and New Testaments and mythology whilst in Florence. The most impressive of these was probably his Rape of the Sabine Women for the Rospigliosi’s family palace in Pistoia (divided up between the Museo Clemente Rospigliosi in Pistoia and the collection of Pistoia’s Cassa di Risparmio; Il Palazzo Rospigliosi di Ripa del Sale in una descrizione del 1832, ed. by Francesca Rafanelli, Pistoia 2011; Itinerari Rospigliosiani. Clemente IX e la famiglia Rospigliosi, ed. by Chiara d’Afflitto and Danilo Romei, Pistoia 2000). Compared with the present composition, the figures have been pushed further to the foreground and are viewed from closer up, and a nuanced palette has been adopted, which is obliged to contemporary Florentine painting. There is also an emphasis on a sensual element in the depiction of the female figures, which has been achieved by the contrast between their three-dimensionally moulded bodies and the elaborate folds of the draperies enveloping the figures. The body language used by Gimignani complies with the rhetoric of contemporary sacred and secular theatre.

We are grateful to Ursula Verena Fischer Pace for her help in cataloguing the present painting.