The exact moment depicted in the story is when Potiphar’s wife seizes Joseph’s clothing after he had refused to lie with her. Joseph had fled, leaving his garment behind, so incriminating him in the eyes of Potiphar who had him imprisoned. On grounds of style, the picture was probably painted in the artist’s last few years in Rome, before he left for Venice where he was by 1626. The attribution to Régnier has been questioned and an alternative Florentine origin is possible.

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