Rembrandt van Rijn

Jacob blesses Ephraim and Manasseh, 1656, Oil on canvas, 173 x 209 cm, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Schloss Wilhelmshöhe, Kassel; Museumslandschaft Hessen Kassel, GK 249, bpk Bildagentur / Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister / Art Resource, NY

A Better Blessing

Commentary by David Brown

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What excites about this painting is its lack of conventionality. Protestant art, as much as Catholic, used the symbolism of Jacob’s crossed hands in this biblical episode as its interpretative key, and as such often made his gesture their central feature (as in the work of Maarten van Heemskerck in the previous century). 

Some commentators insist that Rembrandt van Rijn, while ignoring this symbolism, merely introduces the same point in a new way. Ephraim is given golden hair with a halo in contrast to Manasseh’s darker looks and hair. This could suggest that the great blessing goes to the more Caucasian-looking son and the lesser to the more Semitic-looking one. But perhaps no more is at stake here than the need to mark some differences between the two children.

More interesting in any case is Rembrandt’s introduction of Joseph’s Egyptian wife, Asenath. Not only does she display a typical motherly concern with what is happening; her expression almost suggests approval, and so appears in marked contrast to her husband’s reaction, as he attempts to move Jacob’s right hand back to Manasseh.

For this introduction of a maternal Asenath, there is no legitimation in the text itself—though Rembrandt was no doubt inspired by increasing stress on the family in the culture of his time as also by his own personal experience. After the death of his beloved wife, Saskia, in 1642, he had fraught relations with his mistress Geertje Dircx which ultimately led to bankruptcy in 1655 and worries about the future of his son, Titus.

But perhaps a greater influence may have been a desire to draw a contrast between this moment and an earlier blessing in the Bible’s patriarchal narrative: a blessing not by Jacob, but of him. With the help of his mother, Rebecca, who disguised his smoothness with goatskins, the young Jacob had tricked his father Isaac into giving him the blessing that properly belonged to Isaac’s first-born son Esau.

Unlike Rebecca, Asenath is here a picture of innocence, with no connection to the animal skin that drapes round Jacob’s neck and which had been the means of the earlier deception (Genesis 27:1–38).   

 

References

Bikker, Jonathan et al. (eds). 2014. Rembrandt: The Late Works (London: The National Gallery), 259

See full exhibition for Genesis 48

Genesis 48

Revised Standard Version

48 After this Joseph was told, “Behold, your father is ill”; so he took with him his two sons, Manasʹseh and Eʹphraim. 2And it was told to Jacob, “Your son Joseph has come to you”; then Israel summoned his strength, and sat up in bed. 3And Jacob said to Joseph, “God Almighty appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan and blessed me, 4and said to me, ‘Behold, I will make you fruitful, and multiply you, and I will make of you a company of peoples, and will give this land to your descendants after you for an everlasting possession.’ 5And now your two sons, who were born to you in the land of Egypt before I came to you in Egypt, are mine; Eʹphraim and Manasʹseh shall be mine, as Reuben and Simeon are. 6And the offspring born to you after them shall be yours; they shall be called by the name of their brothers in their inheritance. 7For when I came from Paddan, Rachel to my sorrow died in the land of Canaan on the way, when there was still some distance to go to Ephrath; and I buried her there on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem).”

8 When Israel saw Joseph’s sons, he said, “Who are these?” 9Joseph said to his father, “They are my sons, whom God has given me here.” And he said, “Bring them to me, I pray you, that I may bless them.” 10Now the eyes of Israel were dim with age, so that he could not see. So Joseph brought them near him; and he kissed them and embraced them. 11And Israel said to Joseph, “I had not thought to see your face; and lo, God has let me see your children also.” 12Then Joseph removed them from his knees, and he bowed himself with his face to the earth. 13And Joseph took them both, Eʹphraim in his right hand toward Israel’s left hand, and Manasʹseh in his left hand toward Israel’s right hand, and brought them near him. 14And Israel stretched out his right hand and laid it upon the head of Eʹphraim, who was the younger, and his left hand upon the head of Manasʹseh, crossing his hands, for Manasʹseh was the first-born. 15And he blessed Joseph, and said,

“The God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked,

the God who has led me all my life long to this day,

16the angel who has redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads;

and in them let my name be perpetuated, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac;

and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth.”

17 When Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand upon the head of Eʹphraim, it displeased him; and he took his father’s hand, to remove it from Eʹphraim’s head to Manasʹseh’s head. 18And Joseph said to his father, “Not so, my father; for this one is the first-born; put your right hand upon his head.” 19But his father refused, and said, “I know, my son, I know; he also shall become a people, and he also shall be great; nevertheless his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his descendants shall become a multitude of nations.” 20So he blessed them that day, saying,

“By you Israel will pronounce blessings, saying,

‘God make you as Eʹphraim and as Manasʹseh’ ”;

and thus he put Eʹphraim before Manasʹseh. 21Then Israel said to Joseph, “Behold, I am about to die, but God will be with you, and will bring you again to the land of your fathers. 22Moreover I have given to you rather than to your brothers one mountain slope which I took from the hand of the Amorites with my sword and with my bow.”

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