This painting was bought at a Sotheby’s sale in Florence on 14 April 1986 with an attribution to Sebastien Bourdon suggested by an autograph letter to the auctioneers from Giuliano Briganti. The reference to the French master still appears substantially valid, even though the work’s poor state of preservation and the overpainting carried out during past episodes of restoration partially impede an evaluation of the work’s quality and suggest the need for greater caution as regards its author. 

In terms of subject matter, the canvas can be included amongst those produced by Bourdon, probably after his stay of 1636-37 in Rome, “dans le goȗt du Benedette”, that is, in the style of Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione, known as Il Grechetto.¹ His model was in fact the compositions produced by the Genoese painter in the early 1630s on the travels of Jacob and other patriarchs from the Old Testament; the first known example appears to be a Journey of Jacob signed and dated 1633 (New York, private collection).² Those narrative stimuli enable Castiglione and his followers to linger - as in the case of the Cerruti canvas - on the evocative depiction of broad landscapes animated by groups of people in ancient dress and livestock, which soon found great favour with collectors. Precise identification of the subject of the painting examined here is hampered by the absence of any specific iconographic details. It can probably be interpreted as the first meeting between Isaac, on his return from the well of Lahai Roi, and Rebecca, led there to meet her husband by the servant of Abraham (Genesis 24, 61-67). 

Simone Mattiello 

¹ Montpellier-Strasbourg 2000-01, p. 149. 

² T. Standring, in Genoa 1990, pp. 59-60, cat.1.