Fleeing Joseph

Joseph and Potiphar's Wife. A Flemish Illumination from the 15^th century.

Joseph on the Run

Joseph and Potiphar’s Wife (1610) by the Italian Mannerist painter Lodovico Cardi (1559-1613) also known as Cigoli.

Catched

Potiphar’s Wife and Joseph by the Italian Baroque painter Paolo Domenico Finoglia, or Finoglio (c. 1590 – 1645). She has already grasped his cloak.

Lots of Gestures

Potiphar’s Wife by the Italian Baroque painter Gian Francesco Barbieri (1591-1666). That seems all about gestures, I also didn’t know that she was already in bed.

Seductive Orient

Potiphar’s Wife a modern Illustration, maybe from a religious book for children.

Despite the costumes and architecture seem well done it’s anything but a good painting. The gestures are ridiculous, it looks much more as if they are playing or acting in a cheap theatre. But above all it’s very interesting that she is depicted as an oriental woman our hero in contrast looks like an all American boy.

Lusty Lady

Potiphar’s Wife (1914) by the German painter Lovis Corinth (1858–1925). Corinth was an influential impressionist painter. Here he shows with easy brushstrokes a voluptuous lusty woman scaring the poor Joseph. It’s a lot about female self-confidence.

A Cool Affair

Joseph and Potiphar's Wife (c.1631) by the Italian Baroque Era Painter Guido Reni (1575-1642).

Reni focuses on the moment when Joseph is fleeing leaving behind his cloak. But of the dramatic action there is not much to see, she looks pretty cool, nearly tired, and Joseph seems kind of playing.

Gorgeous Lady

Potiphar’s Wife (1914) by the Russian artist Léon Samoilovitch Bakst (1866-1924).

Bakst was a painter but became famous as a scene- and costume designer who revolutionized the arts he worked in. Here he painted the costume of Potiphar’s Wife, it’s that of a kind of exotic, strange and powerful lady. Unlike many of his colleagues he doesn’t pretend to be "realistic", but probably an Egyptian noble would have look like this to a poor Jewish slave.

Potiphar’s Wife

Sold as a slave by his brothers Joseph became an overseer in the household of the rich Egypt officer Potiphar. But there he was pursued by the woman of his master who seemed to be bored with her life in luxury. When Joseph resisted several of her attempts to seduce him she became furious and accused him of attempting to rape her. Potiphar casts Joseph into prison where he stayed until he had to interpret the dreams of the Pharaoh.

This saucy little story was rather successful as an art subject. There was the chaste young man (presumably the artist himself) resisting heroically seduction and menace, always true to his real master (presumably the artist’s male sponsor).

This "Joseph and Potiphar's Wife" (1660s) is by the Spanisch painter Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (1617-1682). It’s very typical for the whole subject. There is the valiant resisting young Joseph and the horny half naked housewife.