Achille Funi started his artistic studies in his hometown of Ferrara and continued them in Milan. He soon joined a group of futurist painters. After World War I, Funi gradually gave up his avant-garde search and chose the classical tradition in the spirit of Giorgio de Chirico’s metaphysical search. Together with other young metaphysical artists, Funi founded the “Novecento” group around the publication “Valori plastici” (“Plastic Values”). Funi’s interest in classical art even inspired him to take the Greek name Achilles (Achille). The painting Rebecca by a Well is an example of the artist’s style that was very typical for him in this period. Funi illustrated the Old Testament story of Eleazar, Abraham’s servant, who went to Mesopotamia to bring a wife for his lord’s son Isaaс. By a well, he met the beautiful Rebecca, who gave water from her jar to his camels and himself. Her generosity and beauty fascinated Abraham, so Rebecca became Isaac’s spouse and the mother of his sons Jacob and Esau. Interpreting the image of Rebecca, the artist turns to the legacy of masters from antiquity and the Early Renaissance. He paints this character and landscape according to the classical tradition, filling it with archaic power and plastic primevalness.