Landscape with the Marriage of Isaac and Rebekah ('The Mill')

Claude wanted no doubt about the subject, so he wrote it on a tree stump in the middle of the picture, the marriage of Isaac and Rebekah from Genesis. The wedding is a country dance, a couple with tambourines and guests lounging on the grass, and the landscape takes over, a wide imaginary lake inspired by the country around Rome, cattle crossing a stream, a watermill and a distant town. Another version by Claude in the Doria Pamphilj gallery in Rome has no inscription, and it is known simply as The Mill. The nickname followed this canvas too. The round tower beside that watermill is a signature of a different kind. It was the emblem of the patron, the duc de Bouillon, whose family name was de la Tour d'Auvergne, the tower of Auvergne.