Vitale da Bologna and Workshop, Joseph's Brothers Beg for Food

Circa 1351-60
Fresco
Pomposa Abbey, Codigoro, Italy

See Genesis 43. During the seven-year famine, ten of Joseph's brothers were sent by their father to Egypt to try to buy food from the Pharaoh's minister. They do not realize that the minister was their brother Joseph. Joseph told them that if they ever came back for more food they would have to bring their brother Benjamin with them. In this panel from the Old Testament series at Pomposa, all eleven brothers have arrived and the steward has brought them into Joseph's house, where they bow before their brother as Joseph tells the steward to serve them a meal (Genesis 43:24-31).

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Photographed at the abbey by Richard Stracke, shared under Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license.