BIBLE PICTURES © Serge Ceruti and Gérard Dufour 2008
RETURN |
You have chosen this picture
Abraham and the Three Angels ; Master of James IV of Scotland ; Flemish ; 1510-20; tempera colours, gold and ink on parchment; J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles.
|
ABRAHAM AND THE THREE VISITORS |
What you can see in this picture……
|
and in other pictures
|
It should not be confused with |
|
The Three Archangels with Tobias; Francesco BOTTICINI; c. 1470; tempera on wood, Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence |
Tobias and the three angels Tobias is the hero of a real small novel with intersecting stories. Tobias is the son of Tobit, a pious Jew who lives in Nineveh at the time of Exodus. The father sends the son to get a sum of money from a long-distance friend. He asks the young man to take a companion for this dangerous journey. Young Tobias meets Azariah, a youth who tells him that he knows the way and then they start on their journey together, but Azariah is none other than the archangel Raphael sent by God to protect Tobias, who is unaware of it. Tobias is often represented walking with Raphael, but sometimes they are accompanied by the other two archangels Gabriel and Michael. Nevertheless young Tobias and Abraham cannot be confused.
|
Jacob’s Dream; RAPHAEL; 1518-19; fresco; Raphael’s Loggia, Vatican Palace.
|
Jacob’s ladder Jacob’s Dream; RAPHAEL; 1518-19; fresco; Raphael’s Loggia, Vatican Palace. Jacob has a dream or a vision; he sees angels go up and down a ladder while God renews his promise that he will have a long descendance. No confusion is possible for Jacob asleep cannot be mistaken for Abraham adoring the angels ; in addition, Jacob’s angels are more numerous. (See Jacob’s Dream)
|
THE BIBLICAL NARRATIVE
Abraham and the Three Angels ; Master of James IV of Scotland ; Flemish ; 1510-20; tempera colours, gold and ink on parchment; J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles.
|
ABRAHAM AND THE THREE VISITORS |
The Book of Genesis, chapter 18 God made a covenant with Abraham and promised him numerous offspring. But his wife Sarah, who was sterile, allowed him to have a son (called Ishmael) with Agar, her handmaid. A few years later, Abraham received a strange visit.
Abraham offered hospitality to his visitors. While
they ate, he remained standing near them. At the end of the meal, the
angel said to him: "I will certainly return
to you according to the time of life; and, behold, Sarah your wife shall
have a son. Sarah, who heard that, "laughed within
herself, saying, ...Shall I surely bear a child,
since I am old? ...And the LORD said to Abraham, Wherefore
did Sarah laugh ? Is any thing too hard for the LORD? At the time appointed
I will return to you, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have
a son.
|
Comment Are these
“three men” (the text constantly hesitates
between the singular and the plural) God’s messengers, therefore angels,
or are they God himself? But Christians have insisted on the presence of “three” men in whom they have seen the image of God, one and Trinity (Father, Son and Holy Ghost). According to St Augustine (On the Trinity II,10), «Abraham saw three men and adored one God.»
|
SIMILAR PICTURES
ABRAHAM AND THE THREE VISITORS
|
Abraham and the Three Angels ; Master of James IV of Scotland ; Flemish ; 1510-20; tempera colours, gold and ink on parchment; J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles.
|
|
The meeting becomes a scene of adoration with some grandiloquence at the classical period |
The Three Angels appearing to Abraham; Giovanni Battista TIEPOLO; 1728-29; fresco; Palazzo Patriarcale, Udino, Italy. |
Abraham and the Angels; Sebastiano RICCI; 1694; oil on canvas; the Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg.
|
The scene of the meal is more or less intimate. |
Abraham is visited by the three Angels; Petrus Comestor, “Bible historiale”; 1372; miniature; manuscript MMW, 10 B 23; Koninklijke Bibliotheek, The Hague
|
Abraham and the Three Angels; REMBRANDT; 1630-1640; oil on canvas, the Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg.
|
Abraham’s world is represented as that of the Turk or that of Classical Antiquity.
|
Abraham and the Three Angels; Gerbrandt van den EECKHOUT; 1656; oil on canvas; Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg
|
Abraham and the Three Angels; Gérard de LAIRESSE, c. 1680, oil on canvas; Musée du Louvre, Paris. |
Since the end of the Middle-Ages, some painters have differentiated the three visitors, the one in the centre has become God the Father. What a difference between Gelder and Chagall ! |
Abraham and the Angels, Aert de GELDER; oil on canvas, Boymans van Beuningen Museum, Rotterdam. Olga's Gallery - Online Art Museum
|
Abraham and the Three Angels; Marc CHAGALL; c. 1960, oil on canvas; Musée du Message Biblique, Nice, France.
|
Sarah is more or less present in the scenes though the visitors have come to announce her future pregnancy. In Provost’s painting, the angel seems to speak to Sarah more than to Abraham. The composition takes the Annunciation to Mary for model, but here Sarah seems to doubt. Her “laughter” is a smile of happiness for Chagall. |
Abraham, Sarah and the Angel; Jan PROVOST, oil on canvas, Musée du Louvre, Paris
|
Sarah and the Angels; Marc CHAGALL; 1960 lithograph; Art Gallery, Chrudim.
|
CLICK HERE TO CHOOSE ANOTHER PICTURE
BIBLE PICTURES © Serge Ceruti and Gérard Dufour 2008