Abraham and the Three Angels
Artist
Unknown
CultureRussian
Dateca. 1490-1510
MediumTempera and gold leaf on panel
DimensionsOverall: 12 × 10 3/4 × 1 3/8 inches (30.48 × 27.31 × 3.49 cm)
Credit LineGift of Dr. Fred Irwig
Object numberR96-5/2
On View
Not on viewCollections
DescriptionThe subject represented is the so-called Feast of Abraham as described in Genesis 18:1-5, when the patriarch Abraham and his wife Sarah were visited by three angels of the Lord, disguised as regular travelers. Their purpose was to announce that Sarah, though of great age, would bear a son (Isaac) through whom the line of Abraham would be propagated. Three winged angels, dressed in black and red robes, haloed, are seated on low thrones around a table set with three vessels. To the left both Abraham and Sarah emerge from their "tent" bearing gifts or food for their guests, while in the bottom right corner a servant slits the throat of a calf in preparation for a feast. The background features, at the left, a townscape (the "tent") with arcades and towers, and at the right a landscape with a single tree and a hill or mountain whose slope is composed of striated rock.Exhibition HistoryN/A
Purchased from an antique shop in Istanbul by Dr. Fred Irwig (1899-1997), Johnson County, KS, 1958-1996;
His gift to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, November 18, 1996.
N/A
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