Panel 16 - Joseph interprets the dreams of Pharaoh's baker and cup-bearer
© Stuart Whatling, 2008
Description:
Genesis 40 tells
how Pharaoh's baker and cup-bearer
(or butler - pincernas in the Vulgate) have both been imprisoned
after earning their master's wrath. Each has a dream one night - the cup-bearer
that he sees a fruitful vine and presses the grapes into Pharaoh's cup
while the baker dreams that he is carrying a basket on his head from which
the birds were stealing the bread. Joseph correctly predicts that in three
days the cup-bearer will be freed and exonerated while the baker will
be hanged (see also Poitiers Bay
111a). The artist here has condensed two narrative moments into one
- the having of the dreams and Joseph's subsequent explication of them.
Joseph stands in the centre, while other side we see the contents of his
cellmates' dreams.
