BARTOLOMEO PASSANTE Joseph in prison interprets the dreams of Pharaoh's cupbearer and baker Oil on canvas, 95x132 cm The painting depicts Joseph interpreting the dreams of Pharaoh's cupbearer and baker (Genesis 40-42). The former dreamed that he had a vine in front of him from which bunches of grapes were growing, which he squeezed into a cup and then gave the juice to Pharaoh. The chief baker dreamed, on the other hand, that he had three baskets of bread and food for Pharaoh on his head but that birds ate the contents of one basket. It is very rare to find such precise and explicit iconography of this scene. Usually cupbearer and baker have no special attributes. The work, which is of considerable artistic interest, is to be placed in the area of the Brindisi painter - but who lived and died in Naples - Bartolomeo Passante, a pupil of Ribera and close to the mysterious personality of the "Master of the Announcement to the Shepherds" (see entry Passante, Bartolomeo di Stefano Causa, in Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani - Volume 81, Rome, 2014). The painting will have to be the subject of further study. We thank Professor Stefano Causa for the attributive suggestion.