Jacob's Ladder

Art Historical Context

This striking print captures the biblical vision of Jacob’s Ladder, in which the patriarch dreams of angels ascending and descending a celestial stairway. Created around 1745 by Joseph Wagner after a design by the Venetian painter Jacopo Amigoni, the work translates Amigoni’s graceful composition into an etching and engraving on laid paper. Measuring roughly 52 by 34 centimeters, the sheet was carefully trimmed to the plate mark, preserving the crisp lines and delicate tonal gradations that made such reproductive prints highly prized in the eighteenth century. Amigoni, celebrated for his eleg...