The Sacrifice of Isaac, Tobias and the Angel, The Angels Appearing to Abraham, Abraham Welcoming the Three Angels (painting series)

Francesco Guardi (Italian, 1712–1793)

1750s

Medium
oil on canvas
Classification
Painting
Dimensions
Framed: 71 x 90.5 x 5.5 cm (27 15/16 x 35 5/8 x 2 3/16 in.); Unframed: 56.5 x 75.5 cm (22 1/4 x 29 3/4 in.)
Culture
Italy
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art, European Painting and Sculpture
Credit line
Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund
Rights
Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
Who can see it
Teens profiles and older: its subject is for older viewers (war, death, the Passion, drink or the like). How works are placed

View at the Cleveland Museum of Art

About this work

This series of paintings predominantly tells the Old Testament story of Abraham and Isaac, and each of the canvases treats the interaction of humans and angels. In three works, angels appear to Abraham and, in one particularly dramatic canvas, an angel intercepts Abraham before he sacrifices his own son. Like another work in this series, Tobias and the Angels, the Sacrifice of Isaac is a narrative about fathers and sons as well as obedience inspired by faith.