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54 - Luca Giordano – The Sacrifice of Isaac Oil on canvas, 126 x …
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Estimate €15,000 - €20,000
Sale commission
Description
Luca Giordano – The Sacrifice of Isaac Oil on canvas, 126 x 180 cm The painting depicts the climax of the episode recounted in Genesis, when the angel intervenes to stop Abraham just as he is about to sacrifice his son Isaac. The scene is rendered through a tightly composed arrangement of great dramatic force: the angel bursts in diagonally from the left; Abraham forms the monumental centre of the composition and suddenly turns his gaze towards the divine apparition, whilst Isaac, positioned on the right with his body almost entirely exposed, is depicted in a pose of intense vulnerability. At the bottom, the presence of the ram completes the biblical narrative. Of particular significance is the connection with Luca Giordano’s *The Sacrifice of Isaac*, held at the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando in Madrid, inv. 0262, oil on canvas, 137 × 206 cm. The Madrid painting, already mentioned in the Academy’s 1824 catalogue as ‘El Sacrificio de Abraham, figuras del tamaño natural, pintado por Lucas Jordán’, constitutes the most direct point of comparison for this canvas. The two works, in fact, share the same conception of the scene: the large diagonal line defined by the angel’s body, the suspended gesture of the hand halting the sacrifice, the central position of Abraham still clutching the knife, the figure of Isaac crouched on the right, and the dense clustering of figures against a rocky, shadowy backdrop. This is a composition in which Giordano concentrates the entire narrative on a few key figures, eliminating all superfluous elements and entrusting the emotional tension of the episode to movement, gazes and light.In the painting under consideration, what is particularly striking is the monumentality of Abraham’s figure, the vigorous characterisation of his age-marked face and his great silvery beard, as well as the contrast between the luminous skin tones of the angel and Isaac and the deep browns that envelop the patriarch. The free and substantial brushwork, and the construction of the figures through broad, luminous masses, are entirely in keeping with Giordano’s pictorial language, in which the legacy of Neapolitan naturalism is combined with a growing Baroque freedom.The very close relationship with the example held at the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, together with the discernible differences in certain passages of the painting and in the modulation of light, allows this canvas to be considered within the context of the various reinterpretations through which Giordano revisited his own compositions, revisiting and varying them in accordance with a practice amply documented in his vast body of work.The work will be accompanied by a critical essay by Prof. Nicola Spinosa, currently being drafted.
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About the sale Paintings and Drawings from the 15th to the 19th century
Auction location
Auction time 10/29/2026 at 3:00 PM
Pictures credits: Contact the Auction House
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