The Story of Joseph

Biagio d’Antonio Tucci (1446 – 1 June 1516) was an Italian Renaissance painter active in Florence, Faenza and Rome. Biagio was born in Florence. It is not known with whom he trained, but his early style reflects the influence of Filippo Lippi, Andrea del Verrocchio and Domenico Ghirlandaio. The latter two were also Biagio's collaborators. With the former Biagio painted the Madonna and Child with Saints for the church of San Domenico del Maglio, now in the Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest. By 1472 he was in a partnership with Jacopo del Sellaio, with whom he painted two great chests, the Morelli Nerli Cassoni (London, Courtauld Institute). Like Sellaio, Biagio was prolific in the art of cassone painting for the duration of his career. 

In 1481–82 he assisted Cosimo Rosselli on frescoes in the Sistine Chapel, including the Last Supper and probably the Crossing of the Red Sea.

Drawn from the Old Testament, a series of continuous narratives depicts episodes from the life of Joseph, the favorite son of the Hebrew patriarch Jacob. To make the story easier to follow, Biagio d'Antonio included inscriptions identifying the principal characters.

In the left-hand loggia, Jacob, seated on a throne, sends Joseph to his half-brothers tending sheep in the field. In the far left corner, the brothers, jealous of their father's love for Joseph, strip him of his jacket and throw him into a pit. Passing merchants purchase the young boy from his brothers for twenty pieces of silver. In the background to the right, the merchants board the ship that will take them and their cargo to Egypt. In the right-hand loggia, the brothers show a blood-smeared coat to their father as evidence that Joseph is dead. With his head in his hand, Jacob mourns his son, whom he believes to be dead.

A companion panel in the Metropolitan Museum of Art depicts the next sequence of events in Joseph's life. Originally framed next to one another, these two panels would have been inserted into the paneling of a room in a Tuscan family's home.