Read the visual description
The image shows a figure in classical robes standing barefoot on a grassy knoll, next to a large goat and a white kid. In the background, there is a rustic building with a thatched roof, and a smaller animal grazing nearby. The landscape features rolling hills, muted trees, and Latin text at the bottom. The style resembles that of a Renaissance artist.
National Gallery of Art · Print
Benjamin
Jan Sadeler I after Crispen van den Broecke
- Date
- c. 1585; published 1643
- Medium
- hand-colored engraving on laid paper
- Dimensions
- overall (cut within platemark): 21.8 x 15 cm (8 9/16 x 5 7/8 in.)
- Classification
- Accession number
- 2005.128.9.a
- Credit line
- Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund
- Time span
- 1551 to 1600
- Department
- CG-E
Portfolio and series
- Series
- The Twelve Sons of Jacob
Subjects and terms
- Landscape
- Flemish
- Costume
- Sheep
- animal
- Man
Provenance
(Kunsthandlung Helmut H. Rumbler, Frankfurt am Main); purchased 2005 by NGA.
Inscription
upper center in plate: BENJAMIN; lower center in plate: .12.; in margin below image, in plate: Sum natu minimus Beniaminus ex Cananea. / Mater in enixu est morte perempta meo. / Me scripture Lupu[m] natu[m] consumere praeda[m] / In matutino tempore uera uocat. (I, Benjamin, am the youngest, born of a Canaanite woman who died giving me birth. The scriptures justly call me a wolf born to devour its prey in the morning. [translation from Veldman, Ilja M., and H. J. de Jonge, "The sons of Jacob: the twelve patriarchs in sixteenth-century Netherlandish prints and popular literature," Simiolus, vol. 15 (1985), no. 3, p. 196.])
NGA object ID 134403. Collection metadata is reproduced under CC0. This work is included because its NGA published-image record is marked open access; visitors should recheck the source record before substantial reuse.