1589
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
Plate 6: Isaachar is a 1589 by Jacob de Gheyn II, a Renaissance work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
A man in a loose robe stands next to a donkey, holding a bulging sack over his shoulder. The donkey’s ears point forward, and the man’s face looks tired. This is Isaachar, one of Jacob’s twelve sons from the Bible. The sack and donkey show he’s meant for hard work—his tribe’s future was tied to labor. Jacob de Gheyn II made this print in the late 1500s, part of a set that gave each son a symbol to match their story. To see more prints like this, look up *The Cleveland Museum of Art*.
In this print, the biblical figure Isaachar holds a rucksack while accompanied by a donkey, denoting his destiny to serve and perform hard labor. This is one of a series of prints depicting the twelve sons of Jacob, each with an attribute and costume that denotes his character. According to the Old Testament, Jacob blessed each of his twelve sons, prophesizing the destiny of their tribe, and assigning them a parcel of land in Canaan. The print series was made in the Netherlands in the late 16th century, a time of political struggle when Old Testament heroes were popular exemplars of fortitude…
The rucksack carried by this Old Testament figure suggests his perpetual travel while the donkey denotes his employment as a laborer.
Read the full account in the museum source.
Jacob de Gheyn II was a Dutch painter and engraver, whose work shows the transition from Northern Mannerism to Dutch realism over the course of his career.
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