17th century Venetian school. BASSANO workshop (Venice, 16th-17th century). "Jacob's Dream". Oil on copper. Slight repainting. Frame with woodworm and inscriptions in Latin. Measurements: 32 x 41 cm; 50,5 x 59,5 cm (frame). Formally we can relate this work to the workshop of the Bassano family, a key family saga for the development of the Venetian mannerist school. Its founder was Jacopo Bassano (ca.1515-1592), although his father had already been a popular artist, from whom Jacopo learned the costumbrist tone with which he endowed many of his religiopositions. A highly successful artist of his day, Jacopo Bassano worked in Venice and other Italian cities and established a studio in his native Bassano del Grappa near Venice. His four sons, Francesco the Younger (1549-1592), Gerolamo (1566-1621), Giovanni Battista (1553-1613) and Leandro (1557-1622), who continued his style, were trained and developed their careers there. The work depicts Jacob's dream. The Genesis account tells that Jacob set out from Beer-sheba in the direction of Haran. By chance he came to a place and stayed there to spend the night, becae the sun had already set. He took a stone from there, put it on as a pillow, and lay down to sleep in that place. And he had a dream: a stairway was leaning against the earth, with its top touching the sky. Angels of God were ascending and descending it. The Lord stood on it and said, "I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. The land on which you are lying, I will give it to you and your descendants. Your descendants will multiply like the dt of the earth, and you will occupy the east and the west, the north and the south; and all the nations of the world will be called blessed becae of you and your descendants. I am with you; I will keep you wherever you go, and I will return you to this land and will not forsake you until I have fulfilled what I have promised." When Jacob awoke, he said, "Truly the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it." And, in awe, he added, "How terrible is this place; it is but the hoe of God and the gate of heaven."Dimensions: 32 x 41 cm; 50,5 x 59,5 cm (frame).