Rebecca Giving Eliezer Water to Drink at the Well 1584

Curator: Let’s discuss Adriaen Collaert's "Rebecca Giving Eliezer Water to Drink at the Well." Editor: It strikes me immediately as meticulously staged, with a theatrical quality in its composition. Curator: This piece, though undated, places a specific woman, Rebecca, within a narrative of servitude and divine selection, highlighting her kindness as pivotal to Abraham’s lineage. Editor: The artist’s technique uses densely packed figures that almost flatten the pictorial space, with the linear perspective seeming somewhat inconsistent. Curator: I see Collaert as using a widely understood biblical scene to explore the ideals of hospitality and duty expected of women in the 16th and 17th centuries. Editor: Ultimately, it’s the artwork’s formal arrangement, its use of line and color, that carries the narrative and the artist's intent.