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Dec 8, 2009

Nov 13, 2009

The Sacrifice of Isaac

c. 1527

Andrea del Sarto

(Italian, 1486–1530)

Italy, Florence, 16th century

Oil on wood

Framed: 208 x 171 x 12.5 cm (81 7/8 x 67 5/16 x 4 15/16 in.); Unframed: 178 x 138 cm (70 1/16 x 54 5/16 in.)

Delia E. Holden and L. E. Holden Funds 1937.577

Location

not on view

Did you know?

The angel has two visible sets of legs, showing the artist’s revision of the composition.

Description

In this dramatic test of faith from the Old Testament book of Genesis, Abraham agrees to slay his son Isaac on God’s command. As Abraham raises the knife, an angel suddenly appears to halt the sacrifice. This work gains its power from the complex expressions of father and son, combining grief, strength, resignation, fear, and realization in their faces and bodies, the latter inspired by ancient sculpture and Michelangelo. Andrea del Sarto never finished this painting, and it lays bare his working methods. He transferred the design to the panel from a drawing, reinforcing the chalk with painted lines—best seen in the donkey at the far right. He then worked over the whole panel at once with thin, brushy veils of color, letting him alter the composition while painting—especially evident in the angel, Isaac’s body, and Abraham’s head.

Video

Provenance

By 1649

Cardinal Carlo de' Medici, Florence

Possibly the Montalvi Collection, Florence

Possibly the Peruzzi Collection, Florence

By 1829

Zondadari Collection, Florence ¹

1846 - 1858

William Cave, died 1858 (Brentry House, near Bristol, bought in Florence in 1846), by inheritance to his wife. ²

1858

Mrs. William Cave

1858

Sold, Christie's, London, June 22, 1858, lot 102

1858 - 1882

Possibly Peters

1882 - ?

George Cornwall Legh, High Legh, Co. Chester ³

? - 1935

Lieutenant Colonel Henry Cornwall Legh, High Legh, Co. Chester

1935

Sold at Sotheby's, London, May 21, 1935, to Spencer Samuels

1935 - 1937

Spencer Samuels, T. Harris, London, and Durlacher Brothers, New York

1937 -

The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH

Provenance Footnotes

¹See Biadi, 1829

²Unsold, Christie's, London, June 29, 1854, lot 77

³According to Royal Academy exhibition catalogue, Winter 1882, no. 206, "purchased by George Cornwall Legh in 1862 at Florence; in the Tordanari collection"

Citations

Biadi, Luigi. Notizie inedite della vita dA̕ndrea del Sarto, raccolte da manoscritti. Firenze, Italy: Tip. Bonducciana, 1831. Reproduced: p. 163, no. 2

Reumont, Alfred von. Andrea del Sarto. Leipzig: F.A. Brockhaus, 1835. Mentioned: P.183

Venturi, Adolfo. La R. Galleria Estense in Modena. Modena: P. Toschi, 1882. Mentioned: P. 257

Redford, George. Art Sales. A History of Sales of Pictures and Other Works of Art. With Notices of the Collections Sold, Names of Owners, Titles of Pictures, Prices and Purchasers, Arranged Under the Artists of the Different Schools in Order of Date. Including the Purchases and Prices of Pictures for the National Gallery. London: [Bradbury, Agnew, & Co., Printers, the "Whitefriars" Press], 1888. Mentioned: V. II, P. 251

Vasari, Giorgio. Le opere di Giorgio Vasari. Firenze: G.C. Sansoni, 1906. Mentioned: Vol. V, P. 52

Guinness, H. Andrea Del Sarto. London, United Kingdom: G. Bell, 1907. Mentioned: p. 74-75

Graves, Algernon. Century of Loan Exhibitions 1813-1912. London: Graves, 1913. Mentioned: Vol. III, p. 1198

The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Catalogue of Paintings, Part 3: European Paintings of the 16th, 17th, and 18th Centuries. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1982. Reproduced: p. 406; Mentioned: p. 407-409

Francis, Henry S. "An Unfinished Version of the 'Sacrifice of Abraham' by Andrea del Sarto." The Bulletin of The Cleveland Museum of Art XXV, no. 3 (March, 1938):39-42. Reproduced: p. 37; Detail: p.38

"Au Cleveland Museum of Art." Mouseion. (Avril 1938) 13-14. Mentioned: p. 13

Gibson, Katharine. Pictures to Grow Up With. New York, NY: Studio Publications, 1942. Reproduced: p. 90

Paintings in the Cleveland Museum of Art. [Cleveland]: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1945. Reproduced: p. 52 archive.org

Coe, Nancy. The History of the Collecting of European Paintings and Drawings in the City of Cleveland. Thesis M.A. Oberlin College, 1956. Reproduced: Vol. II, P. 216, no. 21

The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 407 archive.org

Härth, Isolde. "Zu Andrea Del Sartos "Opfer Abrahams"." Mitteilungen Des Kunsthistorischen Institutes in Florenz 8, no. 3 (1959): 167-73. Mentioned: P. 167, n. 2 www.jstor.org

Wescher, Paul. La prima idea: die Entwicklung der Ölskizze von Tintoretto bis Picasso. München, Germany: F. Bruckmann, 1960. Reproduced: p. 19, pl. 3, fig. 2

Berenson, Bernard. Italian Pictures of the Renaissance: A List of the Principal Artists and Their Works, with an Index of Places : Florentine School. London, United Kingdom: Phaidon Press, 1963. Mentioned: p. 1, 7

Freedberg, S. J. Andrea Del Sarto. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1963. Reproduced: vol. I, p. 77-70, figs. 179-184;

Jaffe, Michael. "The Figurative Arts of the West, ca. 1400-1800." Apollo: The International Magazine for Collectors 75, no. 22 (1963): Mentioned: p. 458; Reproduced: fig. 4, p. 460

Shearman, John K. G. Andrea Del Sarto. Oxford, United Kingdom: Clarendon Press, 1965. Reproduced: p. 110-111, pl. 146, 148 a and b, vol. I; p. 216, no. 79. vol. II

The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. Reproduced: p. 92 archive.org

Hillyer, V. M., and E. G. Huey. Fine Art; [the Last Two Hundred Years]. New York, NY: Meredith Press, 1966. Reproduced: p. 78

Coe, Ralph T. "Rubens in 1614: 'The Sacrifice of Abraham.'" The Nelson Gallery and Atkins Museum Bulletin IV, no. 7 (December 1966): 1-22. Mentioned: P. 2; reproduced: P.3, fig. 1

Cleveland Museum of Art. Selected Works: Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: The Museum, 1967. Reproduced: no. 140

Murray, Linda. The High Renaissance. New York: F.A. Praeger, 1967. Reproduced: P. 160, fig. 118

The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. Reproduced: p. 92 archive.org

Cleveland Museum of Art, and Berthold Fricke. The Cleveland Museum of Art. Hannover: Knorr & Hirth, 1970. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 44-45

Avery, Catherine B., ed. The New Century Italian Renaissance Encyclopedia. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1972. Mentioned: P. 42

Fredericksen, Burton B., and Federico Zeri. Census of Pre-Nineteenth-Century Italian Paintings in North American Public Collections. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1972. Mentioned: P. 8, 255, 573

Lurie, Ann Tzeutschler. "Agnolo Bronzino: Portrait of a Young Lady." The Bulletin of The Cleveland Museum of Art LXI, no. 1 (January, 1975):3-13. Detail Reproduced: p. 6

Fader, Martha Alice Agnew. Sculpture in the Piazza Della Signoria: As Emblem of the Florentine Republic. Thesis Ph.D. Ann Anbor, MI: University of Michigan, 1977. Reproduced: p. 339, fig. 27

The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 107 archive.org

Vos, Rik. Lucas van Leyden. Bentveld, Netherlands: Landshoff, 1978. Mentioned: p. 56-57; Reproduced: fig. 80

Hall, Marcia B. Color and Meaning: Practice and Theory in Renaissance Painting. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press, 1992. Reproduced: p. 147, fig. 47

Masterpieces from East and West. New York, NY: Rizzoli International, 1992. Reproduced: p. 109

Natali, Antonio. Andrea Del Sarto. New York, NY: Abbeville Press Publishers, 1999. Reproduced: p. 183, no. 179

May, Sally Ruth, Jane Takac, and Barbara J. Bradley. Knockouts: A Pocket Guide. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2001. Mentioned: p. 50; Reproduced: p. 50, 51

Keiith, Larry. "Andrea del Sarto's 'The Virgin and Child with Saint Elizabeth and Saint John the Baptist': Technique and Critical Reception." National Gallery Technical Bulletin 22 (2001): 42-53. Mentioned: P. 50; Reproduced: P. 50-51, pl. 7 & 9

Franklin, David, Louis Alexander Waldman, and Andrew Butterfield. Leonardo Da Vinci, Michelangelo, and the Renaissance in Florence. Ottawa, Ontario: National Gallery of Canada, 2005. Mentioned: p. 150; Reproduced: fig. 40

Iacono, Margaret. Masterpieces of European Painting from the Cleveland Museum of Art. New York, NY: The Frick Collection, 2006. Mentioned: p. 24-27; Reproduced: no. 3

Channing, Laurence, "Personal and Professional", Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine. Vol. 46 no. 10, December 2006 Mentioned & reproduced: p. 4 archive.org

Boskovits, Miklós, ed. Italian Paintings from the 13th to 15th Century. Firenze, Italy: Polistampa, 2009. Mentioned: p. 20

Wetering, Ernst van de. Rembrandt: The Painter at Work. Amsterdam, Netherlands: Amsterdam University Press, 2009. Reproduced: p. 32, fig. 35

Hilaire, Michel, and Axel Hémery. Corps et ombres: Caravage et le caravagisme européen. Milan, Italy: 5 continents, 2012. Reproduced: p. 72, fig. 1

Hout, Nico van, and Ted Alkins. The unfinished painting. 2012. Ghent, Belgium: Ludion, 2012. Mentioned: p. 4, p. 82-84; Reproduced: Fig. 82

Pontormo, Jacopo da, Bastian Eclercy, and Ralf Bormann. Pontormo: Meisterwerke des Manierismus in Florenz. Hannover, Germany: Landesmuseum Hannover, 2013. Reproduced: p. 73, fig. 52; Mentioned: p. 207

Cleveland Museum of Art. The CMA Companion: A Guide to the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2014. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 176

Bomford, David. Unfinished Paintings: Narratives of the Non Finito. Edinburgh: National Galleries of Scotland: in association with the University of Edinburgh, 2015. Mentioned p. 17; Reproduced: p. 18

Carmen C. Bambach, exhibition review of Andrea del Sarto, The Burlington Magazine 158, no. 1354 (January 2016). Mentioned: p. 70-72; Reproduced: p. 70, fig. 95

Jenison, Tim, Jonathan Janson, and David Walsh. Hound in the Hunt: Optical Aids in Art. Berriedale, Tas.: Museum of Old and New Art, 2016. Reproduced: p. 96, fig. 2.4

Schumacher, Andreas, et. al. Florentiner Malerei: Alte Pinakothek : die Gemälde des 14. bis 16. Jahrhunderts. [München]: Alte Pinakothek; Berlin: Deutscher Kunstverlag, 2017. Reproduced: p. 535, Abb. 37.10; P.536, Abb. 37.12

Bayer, A., et. al. "Andrea del Sarto's Borgherini Holy Family and Charity: Two Intertwined Late Works." Metropolitan Museum of Art 52 (2017). Mentioned: p. [34]-55; Reproduced: p. 46, fig. 15

Hall, Marcia B. The Power of Color: Five Centuries of European Painting. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2019. Reproduced: p. 127, fig. 3.21

Exhibition history

Winter Exhibition. Burlington House, Royal Academy, London, United Kingdom (1882).

Florence and the Arts: Five Centuries of Patronage. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (1971).

The Twentieth Anniversary Exhibition: The Official Art Exhibit of the Great Lakes Exposition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 26-October 4, 1936).

The Silver Jubilee Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 23-September 28, 1941).

Art and Humanism in the Renaissance. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 23-February 25, 1962).

Leonardo, Michelangelo and the Renaissance in Florence. National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Ont.,, Canada (organizer) (May 27-September 5, 2005).

Masterpieces of European Painting from The Cleveland Museum of Art. Frick Collection, New York, NY (organizer) (November 8, 2006-January 28, 2007).

Masterpieces of European Painting from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage, Beachwood, OH (March 29-July 8, 2007).

Andrea del Sarto: The Renaissance Workshop in Action. J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, CA (organizer) (June 23-September 13, 2015).

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{{cite web|title=The Sacrifice of Isaac|url=https://clevelandart.org/art/1937.577|author=Andrea del Sarto|year=c. 1527|access-date=02 November 2023|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

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