The Sacrifice of Abraham

About the Work

Ottavio Vannini has depicted a highly dramatic situation. An angel appears in the nick of time to prevent Abraham from carrying out the divine command to sacrifice his son Isaac. The drawing exhibits a number of changes in the composition, for example the straightening of Abraham’s right arm. As a result, his two arms together form a clear diagonal extending from Isaac’s head to the angel and thus directly, thus directly linking the father’s readiness to make a sacrifice with the life-saving intervention.