Artwork
The meeting of Jacob and Esau
The meeting of Jacob and Esau is an oil painting by the Early Baroque Italian artist Jacob Pynas. It dates from 1615 and is held in the collection of the Rijksmuseum.
About this work
Subject & Meaning
A tree is included among the depicted elements, situating the encounter in a landscape setting typical of early seventeenth-century Dutch religious painting.
The painting depicts the Reconciliation of Jacob with Esau, a biblical episode drawn from Genesis. After years of estrangement following Jacob's deception of their father Isaac and his flight from Esau's wrath, the two brothers meet again, and Esau embraces Jacob in forgiveness. The work is classified as religious art, and its main subject is this moment of fraternal reconciliation.
A tree is included among the depicted elements, situating the encounter in a landscape setting typical of early seventeenth-century Dutch religious painting. Executed in oil on a small copper support, the intimate scale suits the personal, devotional character of the scene.
Technique & Style
The work is executed on a copper support using oil paint, reflecting early 17th-century Dutch practice of painting on metal to achieve a smooth, reflective surface. Jacob Pynas rendered the biblical reconciliation scene with a focus on intimate gesture and chiaroscuro, emphasizing the moment of embrace between Jacob and Esau. The composition is tightly framed, highlighting the figures against a darkened landscape with a prominent tree, underscoring themes of forgiveness and familial restoration.
Measured at 24.5 cm in height and 31 cm in width, the painting is housed in the Rijksmuseum collection, where it remains part of the museum’s religious art holdings.
History & Provenance
Jacob Pynas executed The Meeting of Jacob and Esau in 1615. The artist created the work as an oil painting on a copper support, depicting the biblical reconciliation between the two brothers. The panel measures 24.5 cm in height and 31 cm in width.
Today, the painting is held within the collections of major Dutch institutions, specifically the Rijksmuseum and the Rembrandt House Museum.
The painting is held in the collection of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, with the Rembrandt House Museum also listed as an associated collection. Its physical location is recorded as the Rijksmuseum. The work is executed in oil paint on copper and measures 24.5 cm in height by 31 cm in width.
No specific inventory or accession number is provided in the available sources, and no exhibition history is documented.
Overview
Jacob Pynas’s 1615 work, The Meeting of Jacob and Esau, is a small‑scale copper painting that captures a quiet biblical encounter. The composition places the two brothers amid a lightly wooded clearing, surrounded by a few onlookers and grazing animals. Trees frame the scene while a distant hill recedes into muted sky, creating a balanced, open landscape.
Context
Pynas worked at a time when Dutch artists were increasingly interested in biblical subjects rendered in everyday settings. The choice of copper as a support was common among his contemporaries seeking luminous effects and fine detail. The painting’s quiet, naturalistic setting aligns with the period’s move toward genre‑like realism in religious scenes.
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Artist & collection
Artist
Jacob Symonsz. Pynas (1592 or 1593 – after 1650) was a Dutch Golden Age painter and draughtsman. He is best known for having briefly taught the painter Rembrandt in 1625.
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