Landscape with dancing figure
(the Marriage of Isaac and Rebecca)
150,5 x 198 cm; oil on canvas (FC 237)
Paired with the View of Delphi with a procession (FC 263), this bucolic scene is dominated by the landscape, and represents, according to its traditional title, the marriage of Isaac and Rebecca. It is possible that Camillo Pamphilj, who commissioned the piece probably in 1646, asked Claude to portray a wedding scene for his marriage to Olimpia Aldobrandini in 1647. Claude Lorrain was the most famous landscape painter of the 17th century, and in the attempt to prevent the falsification of his work – many fakes were already in circulation at that time – he created a Liber Veritatis (Book of Truth) where he assembled small sketches of his works, in which our painting appears.
