Rebecca and Eliezer

Rebecca and Eliezer of around 1660 at the Museo del Prado depicts the Old Testament scene from Genesis 24 in which Abraham's servant Eliezer, sent to find a wife for Isaac, identifies Rebecca by her willingness to water his camels at the well outside the city of Nahor. The scene was traditionally interpreted as a prefiguration of the Annunciation, Eliezer representing God's messenger and Rebecca the Virgin Mary accepting her divine vocation. Murillo's treatment brings his characteristic warmth to the biblical narrative, showing Rebecca and the servant in intimate conversation by the well, the Old Testament setting conveying Levantine color and costume without sacrificing the emotional accessibility that made his work so widely beloved. By 1660 he had established himself as Seville's dominant painter of both religious and Old Testament narrative subjects, receiving commissions from the city's major religious institutions and from private collectors building domestic galleries. The Prado's holding documents his mature command of the multi-figure narrative composition with landscape setting.

The composition groups the figures in a balanced arrangement around the central well, with Murillo's characteristic soft lighting and warm flesh tones. The landscape background opens into atmospheric depth while maintaining focus on the figural narrative.