THE STRUGGLE OF JACOB the-struggle-of-jacob | Page 3

PREMISE
I'm about to recount, and for the first time in detail,
the story of one of my pictorial works, a triptych dedicated
to The Struggle of Jacob: its prerequisites; its genesis;
the creative and executive process; the circumstances;
the choices, and the technical solutions. And all this as
it was lived and brought to completion.
THE SUBJECT
The Struggle of Jacob is a biblical episode (Genesis 32: 23-33).
Jacob was the twin brother of Esau, sons of Isaac and Rebecca.
The very etymology of his name, “he who grasps the heel, who
follows close behind, who supplants”, recalls the circumstance
that at the moment of his birth he held on to the heel of his twin
brother, who was born first and therefore destined for the right
of primogeniture. All of his life was conditioned by this inferiority
complex, and in attempting to free himself from it, he could not
avoid behaving shamelessly unfairly in various situations.
However, on the occasion of a journey to meet his brother - with
rather ambiguous intentions - Jacob is crossing the Jabbok
River, together with his two wives (Lia and Rachel), their eleven
children (Benjamin was not yet born), their slaves, and herds of
animals, when eventually he finds himself alone.
When darkness falls he is attacked by a man with whom he
struggles all night. Jacob is wounded in the sciatic nerve (his
thigh) but manages to hold on to his adversary who, with the
coming of morning, and in order to liberate himself, he accedes
to Jacob’s request for a blessing, attributing to him the name of
Israel (which in Hebrew means “man who saw God” or “man
who struggles with God”).
The biblical narrative of this passage is particularly impenetrable,
enigmatic: some interpretations assert that the assailant is an
angel, others God himself, and still others a magician or a pagan.
It is a fact that Jacob, renamed Israel, and in spite of his low
moral bearing with regard to his brother Esau, became the
forefather of the whole Jewish race, and his twelve sons the
progenitors of the twelve tribes.