Isaac Sends Esau Out to Hunt
12th-13th century
Mosaic
Cathedral of the Assumption, Monreale, Sicily
The inscription quotes Genesis 27:3-4, with an attribution and a couple of ellipses: dixit ysaac ad filium suum esau sume arma tua et egredere foras cumque venatu aliquid apprehenderis fac inde pulmentum ut comedam et benedicat tibi [anima mea] antequam moriar, "Isaac said to his son Esau, ‘Take thy weapons… and take me some venison. And make me savory meat… and bring it to me, that I may eat, that my soul may bless thee before I die.’"
In the upper left of this panel we see Rebecca listening to these words. On the right Esau has taken his bow and shot down some birds. The bow is mentioned in a phrase from the text that the mosaicist left out of the inscription.
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Photographed at the cathedral by Richard Stracke, shared under Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license.