Jusepe and Jacob’s dreams
This post is about a dream. But first, a short film starring Kiki de Montparnasse, who at 14 began her career as a naked model for every artist in Paris back when the 1900s were young. She had some wonderful dreams, not always while sleeping. The clip is from “l’Etoile de Mer” by Man Ray, her long-time boyfriend. Read more about Kiki in this post.
Finished? Let’s proceed.
Google Earth only poked a big enough hole in Madrid’s Prado Museum to see a few paintings, so it’s not surprising that those few — suddenly seen startlingly up close by millions of people — generated a fair bit of natter online.
One of these paintings, now viewable on Google Earth as closely as any professional restorer has seen it, is “Jacob’s Dream” by Jusepe de Ribera, dated 1639. Unfortunately some of the talk about it on the Internet has been as wildly presumptuous as much of the Jewish, Christian and Muslim interpretations of Jacob’s original dream itself.
In fact those opposing interpretations are being repeated now in the context of this painting’s fresh “availability”.
What was Jacob dreaming about? Angels running up and down a ladder connecting Heaven and Earth, everyone agrees. Ah, but what does it signify? It depends on your peacher.
The Jews, who owned the copyright to the story to begin with, were magnanimous. The angels represented people’s souls descending to and ascending from their bodies, which, yes, could imply reincarnation. (That’s going to be a problem for the Christians.)
Or, said the Jewish scholars, the angels are Heaven’s stevedores, hoisting souls on board. Or, hey, maybe Jacob was just dreaming about life’s ups and downs.
The Christians saw no reason for ambiguity: This is obviously a sign from God, right there in the Bible, that Jesus saves. The Muslims said that’s right, except for the part about Jesus — the ladder clearly belongs to Muhammed. See the rest.
