Fra Angelico, The Crucifixion: Detail, Jacob the Patriarch

1441-43
Fresco
Convent of San Marco, Florence

This detail is from the border around the main image of the Crucifixion. The banderole reads ad [p]redam descendisti fili mi dormiens accubuisti ut leo, "to the prey, my son, thou art gone up: resting thou hast couched as a lion." These are Jacob's words to Judah at Genesis 49:9. Comments on this passage collected in the Glossa Ordinaria (I, 451-52) are rather confused but generally assume that as "son" Judah is a type of Christ whose "resting" refers to his time in the tomb before his resurrection.

View the entire fresco.
Read more about Jacob.

Photographed at the site by Richard Stracke, shared under Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license.