Core Record |
| Title |
Sacrifice of Isaac |
| Collection |
Lancaster City Museum |
| Artist |
Attributed to manner of Guercino (Italian painter and draftsman, 1591-1666) |
| Date Earliest |
about 1590 |
| Date Latest |
about 1650 |
| Description |
This is the specific moment in the story of the sacrifice of Isaac by his father Abraham, when God intervenes through an angel to halt the sacrifice of Isaac and substitue a ram. In the Bible the angel speaks but does not appear, but here the appearance of the angel blocking the dagger provides the sense of drama. The current attribution to Guercino, one of the greatest painters and draughtsmen of the mid-seventeenth century, has been recently discredited. However ,another painting by him of the same subject has a very similar composition. Guercino's interest lay in the fleeting but significant instant in a religious story which he often lit very dramatically. |
| Current Accession Number |
LM 1892.4 |
| Subject |
religion (Sacrifice of Isaac) |
| Measurements |
175 x 123 cm (estimate) |
| Material |
oil on canvas |
| Acquisition Details |
Transferred from Storey Institute 1976. |
| Provenance |
Given by Edward Johnson to the Storey Institute 1891 |
| Notes |
Recent conservation work, 1996-7 revealed that the top edge of the work has been cut off suggesting that this was originally part of a larger altarpiece. In a letter (30 April 1996), Dr Finaldi (curator of later Italian and Spanish painting at the National Gallery, London) states that she 'like Sir Denis Mahon finds it impossible to suggest a firm attribution for this painting... I am sure that it is an Italian painting of the 17th century and I can tentatively suggest that it may have been painted in Naples in the middle of the century since it has certain similarities (hardly very marked though) with the works of an artist called Giovanni Battista Benaschi.' There is a Guercino painting of this same subject in the Wrightman Gallery, Indiana. The Indiana work depicts the same moment of the story, the angel halting Abraham's hand and gesturing to heaven. There is a powerful juxtaposition of Abraham's relationship with his son as both father and potential murderer represented in the placement of his hands. The left tenderly resting on the boy's shoulder, while the right hand is raised with the intent of delivering the dagger. |
| Rights Owner |
Lancaster City Museum |
| Author |
Lisa Howard |
