Tapestry Wall-hanging; subject, Abraham's upper servant meeting Rebecca at the spring of water. Flemish, late 17th century.
At top, in the middle of the broad border, a tablet gives us the
following inscription:—Cumque pervenisset (servus?) ad fontem et sibi
(aquam?) petiisset et Batuelis filia Rebecca ex hydria potum dedisset et
camelis haustis et filio Abrahe eam fore conjugem oraculo cognovit.
In the twenty-fourth chapter of Genesis we read how Abraham in his old age sent his eldest servant unto his own country and kindred, thence to bring back a wife for his son Isaac; and how that man, at his master's behest, immediately took ten camels, carrying something of all his lord's goods with him, and went on to Mesopotamia, to the city of Nahor; and how, when he had reached that place, and had made a halt without the town near a well of water, in the evening, at the time that women were wont to come out to draw water, he besought Heaven that the maid to whom he should say, "Let down thy pitcher, I pray thee, that I may drink, and she shall say, Drink, and I will give thy camels drink also—let the same be she that Thou hast appointed for thy servant Isaac." This faithful steward had not yet ended these words within himself, and behold Rebecca came out, the daughter of Bathuel the son of Milcha, wife to Nahor, the brother of Abraham, and spoke and did as this servant had wished: and then he gave her golden earrings and bracelets.
As was fitting, the whole scene is laid in the open air, amid a charming landscape scattered all over with buildings. To the left, in the foreground, we behold a maid with a pitcher getting water out of a large square tank, ready, as it seems, for a second serving-woman to carry off, and who is coming back with another pitcher empty to be again refilled. In the middle ground a young woman, who carries a large pot of water on her head, is clambering over a wooden fence, and going towards an arch or bridge leading to a house.
Right in the centre of the piece stands Rebecca, with one foot resting on a slab of veined marble, on which is placed a richly ornamented vase; and from out another like vessel, which she holds up in both her hands, she is giving drink to the steward Eliezer, who is respectfully bending forwards while carrying to his lips this same pitcher to slake his thirst. A kind of short sword, or anelace, dangles from his girdle, and a long stout staff lies by his feet upon the ground. Two tall trees with vines
