Iconographic sources of the composition of the painting «Rebekah at the Well» from the collection Museum of Music

The collection of the St. Petersburg State Museum of Theater and Musical Art contains a small canvas, the plot of which, judging by the nature of the characters and the features of the compositional structure, goes back to the Old Testament story of Isaac and Rebekah from the Book of Genesis. The iconographic source for the painting was an engraving by Joseph Wagner based on the work of Jacopo Amigoni, which was often reproduced by German artists of the second half of the XVIII – early XIX centuries. The plot of «Rebekah at the Well», which goes back to the text of the Book of Genesis, occupies a special place in European fine art. In the early medieval book miniature, the scene is characterized by successiveness, the combination of several consecutive events in a single visual field and the appeal to late antique images symbolizing water sources. In the art of the book of the Middle Ages, the main aspects of iconography and the sequence of presentation of the scenes of the meeting of Eleazar and Rebekah are formed. In the Venetian painting of the Renaissance period, the plot acquires the dynamic structure of the composition and the solemn conviviality characteristic of the school. In the XVII–XVIII centuries. Three types of interpretation of the plot of «Rebekah at the Well» are formed – a chamber version with semi-figures of characters in the foreground, a laconic closed composition with characters presented in height, and a panoramic landscape with a staff. The first type includes paintings by C. Maratta, G. B. Piazzetta, G. B. Tiepolo; the second – paintings by B. Strozzi, F. Bol, N. Poussin, B. E. Murillo, J. Hogers, Ch. A. Quapel, the third – D. Gargillo, V. Castello, W. van Neulandt, F. A. Maulberch. The iconography of the scene «Rebekah at the Well», which was formed in the Modern era, assuming a multi-figure composition in a landscape frame, was reflected in the composition from the collection of the St. Petersburg State Museum of Theater and Music.