Jacob's Dream (Ms. 33, fol. 40, from the Weltchronik)

Unknown painter, Regensburg · about 1400–1410
Getty Center, Los Angeles

A painted page from a German world chronicle in verse — the Weltchronik of the thirteenth-century poet Rudolf von Ems, which retells the Bible story by story. This copy was made in Regensburg about 1400–1410 by a painter whose name is not known; under the picture, two columns of the poem tell the same scene.

Jacob sleeps on a pink hillside, his head on his hand. A yellow ladder rises at the left with angels climbing up and down, and above, in a ring of cloud, a figure looks down towards him.

From the text

A stone for a pillow, sleeping on the way to Haran (Genesis 28:11)

A stairway set on the earth, its top reaching heaven (Genesis 28:12)

Angels going up and down on it (Genesis 28:12)

The artist’s own

A wooden ladder of the painter’s day for the stairway

Gold halos and bright robes on the angels

Jacob in the dress of a 1400s traveller

Details

Above

A figure in a ring of cloud looks down, pointing towards Jacob.

The ladder

Angels with golden halos climb up and down the yellow ladder.

Jacob asleep

Bearded, in a grey robe, his head propped on his hand.

Unknown illuminator; text by Rudolf von Ems (Austrian, about 1200–1254). The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles (Ms. 33 (88.MP.70), fol. 40) · Tempera colors, gold, silver paint, and ink · Images provided here are believed to be in the public domain and are available under CC0 through Getty’s Open Content Program. (Getty record: "No Copyright", http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)

The verses

Gen 28:10–17Meanwhile Jacob left Beersheba and set out for Haran. On reaching a certain place, he spent the night there because the sun had set. And taking one of the stones from that place, he put it under his head and lay down to sleep. And Jacob had a dream about a ladder that rested on the earth with its top reaching up to heaven, and God’s angels were going up and down the ladder. And there at the top the LORD was standing and saying, “I am the LORD, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you now lie. Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and east and north and south. All the families of the earth will be blessed through you and your offspring. Look, I am with you, and I will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. For I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.” When Jacob woke up, he thought, “Surely the LORD is in this place, and I was unaware of it.” And he was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven!”