Abraham Welcoming the Three Angels
Francesco Guardi (Italian, 1712–1793)
1750s
- Medium
- oil on canvas
- Classification
- Painting
- Dimensions
- Framed: 70.5 x 90.5 x 5.5 cm (27 3/4 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
- Tweens profiles and older: its subjects are known and suit older children. How works are placed
View at the Cleveland Museum of Art
About this work
Three of the four pictures in the series depict episodes from the life of the Old Testament figure of Abraham, beginning with the angels appearing to Abraham. According to Genesis 18, Abraham met three men at midday, and, recognizing that they were angels, humbly bowed down to them with his face touching the ground. The encounter incongruously takes place before a marble, classical portico in which a woman lurks, presumably his wife Sarah.
