Abraham's Sacrifice - Styles and Influences
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Abraham's Sacrifice
Benozzo Gozzoli ?
ca. 1480
According to the Bible, Abraham, with a heavy heart, obeyed the Lord's request to sacrifice his only son Isaac. When he raised the knife to slay his son, an angel - the Lord's hand - prevented him from doing so.
In Gozzoli's painting the angel has brought a lamb to take Isaac's place. In iconographic terms, Abraham's sacrifice prefigures Christ's sacrifice on the Cross, while Isaac, carrying wood on his back, prefigures Christ carrying the Cross on which He is to be sacrificed.