# The Oath of Abraham’s Servant

- By: Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione (Italian, 1609–1664)
- Date: c. 1650–59
- Medium: oil on canvas
- Classification: Painting
- Dimensions: Framed: 71.2 x 94 x 9 cm (28 1/16 x 37 x 3 9/16 in.); Unframed: 56 x 78.4 cm (22 1/16 x 30 7/8 in.)
- Culture: Italy
- Credit line: Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund
- Museum: [Cleveland Museum of Art](https://clevelandart.org/art/1969.1)
- Rights: [Public domain (CC0)](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)
- Picture: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1969.1/1969.1_web.jpg
- Who can see it: Teens profiles and older (museums give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the museum's own words)

This work has long been called Journey of a Patriarch in the belief that the artist intended no specific subject. The painting instead depicts a moment in the Old Testament book of Genesis. Abraham secures a pledge from his servant to find a wife for Abraham’s son Isaac. The servant wears a zamt, a goatskin cap common in North Africa in the 1600s, here dyed an unusual shade of blue, a color associated with faith and trust, symbolizing his sacred oath.