Joseph receiving Pharaoh’s Ring

This painting shows the dramatic moment Joseph wins his freedom and is appointed to the role of Vizier, Pharaoh’s Chief Administrator. In this Christian story from the Book of Genesis in the Bible’s Old Testament, Joseph had been sold into slavery by his jealous brothers and imprisoned for a crime he did not commit. While in prison Joseph correctly interprets the dreams of Pharaoh, which saves Egypt from famine. Here, he receives his reward: ‘And Pharaoh took off his ring from his hand, and put it upon Joseph's hand, and arrayed him in vestures of fine linen, and put a gold chain about his neck’ (Genesis 41:42).  

Giovanni Battista Tiepolo’s (1696-1770) use of colour and costume references the Golden Age of Venetian painting, specifically the works of Italian painter Paolo Veronese (1528-1588), as well as Old Testament scenes by the Dutch artist Rembrandt and his circle. The horizontal format of the work, with its half-length figures, is exceptional within Tiepolo’s oeuvre and is more reminiscent of seventeenth-century Bolognese paintings, such as Guercino (1591-1666), than of Venetian pictures. Some scholars have pointed to the far trumpeter as a possible self-portrait of the artist.