Laban Searching for His Stolen Household Gods
Bartolomé Esteban Murillo·c. 1665–70
Historical Context
Murillo's Laban Searching for His Stolen Household Gods at the Cleveland Museum of Art, painted around 1665-70, is one of his most ambitious large-scale Old Testament narrative paintings. The episode from Genesis — Laban pursuing Jacob, who has fled with Rachel and his household idols, unaware that Rachel has hidden the idols under her camel saddle — offered Murillo a richly dramatic subject of pursuit, confrontation, and concealed deception. The large format demonstrates his mastery of the complex multi-figure composition that characterised the greatest Venetian and Flemish narrative painting, which he studied through engravings and example paintings that reached Seville. Murillo's biblical narratives are less well known than his devotional images but equally accomplished, bringing the same warmth and humanity to Old Testament subjects that made his Madonna and Child paintings so widely beloved. The Cleveland Museum's acquisition of this monumental canvas places it among the finest collections of Spanish Baroque painting in the United States.
Technical Analysis
Murillo's golden, atmospheric palette creates a warm, unified tonality across the large canvas. The figures are arranged in a dynamic yet balanced composition, with loose, flowing brushwork in the draperies and landscape contrasting with more precise treatment of faces and hands.
Look Closer
- ◆Notice Murillo's golden, atmospheric palette creating warm, unified tonality across the large canvas — the Venetian influence he absorbed filtered through Sevillian light.
- ◆Look at the flowing brushwork in the draperies and landscape contrasting with more precise treatment of faces and hands.
- ◆Observe the dynamic yet balanced composition of the multi-figure narrative — Laban searching, Rachel concealing, the household mid-flight.
- ◆Find Rachel seated on the camel's saddle where she has hidden the household gods — her expression caught between fear and composed innocence.
Provenance
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio; (Wildenstein & Co., New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art); Carlos Guinle [1889-1956], Rio de Janeiro; Jacques Barou de la Lombardière de Canson [d. 1958], Paris; Hibbard1; (Christie, Manson, and Woods, London, sale, July 4, 1924, no. 21, sold to Hibbard); Hugh Richard Arthur Grosvenor, second Duke of Westminster [1879 –1953]; Hugh Grosvenor, Marquis of Westminster [1825-1899], Grosvenor House, London, to his grandson, Hugh Richard Arthur Grosvenor; Possibly Robert Grosvenor, Marquis of Westminster [1767-1845]1; Marquis of Santiago, Santiago Palace, Madrid, sold to William Buchanan and W.G. Coesvelt through G. Augustus Wallis; (William Buchanan and W.G. Coesvelt, London, acquired in Spain through Buchanan’s agent, G. Augustus Wallis), sold to the Marquis of Westminster)1; Marquis of Villamanrique, MadMarquis of Santiago, Santiago Palace, Madrid, sold to William Buchanan and W.G. Coesvelt through G. Augustus Wallisrid1; Marquis of Villamanrique, Seville
