The support is a single, horizontally grained oak panel bevelled on all sides. Dendrochronology has shown that the youngest heartwood ring was formed in 1599. The panel could have been ready for use by 1610, but a date in or after 1616 is more likely. The paint layers were either applied directly onto the support, or there is a thin white ground. Except for a little bit of yellow pigment used for the flames of the fire in the middleground, the painting was executed in shades of black and white.

Fair. The figure of Isaac, the angel and the sky are heavily abraded. Areas of retouching in the sky and the varnish have discoloured.

…; sale, Johan van der Marck Aegidiusz (1707-72, Leiden), Amsterdam (H. de Winter et al.), 25 August 1773, no. 159 (‘Abrahams Offerhande, op Paneel, L. 15 ¼ b. 12 ½ duim [39.2 x 32 cm]. Men ziet den Gelovigen Aardsvader bereid zynen zoon Isaak, die zich bereids op de houtstapel gereed vertoond, te offeren in welk voornemen hy door een Engel wederhouden word. Verders twee vliegende kindertjes en een Ram, die zich van tusschen de struiken op doet en verder bywerk, op de Voorgrond, fraay in’t graauw geschilderd.’), fl. 16, to J. Yver;…; ? sale, Susanna Louisa Huygens (1714-85), The Hague (auction house not known), 22 May 1786, no. 19 (‘Abrahams Offerhande, kragtig en uitvoerig, door P. Lastman’), fl. 9.10, to Van Diest;…; donated to the museum by Dr Abraham Bredius (1855-1946), The Hague, 22 February 1887;¹¹RANH, ARS, IS, inv. 167, no. 139 (22 February 1887); RANH, ARS, Kop, inv. 289, pp. 124-25, no. 280 (1 March 1887). on loan to the Museum Het Rembrandthuis, Amsterdam, since 1917

Object number: SK-A-1359

Credit line: Gift of A. Bredius, The Hague

As has often been pointed out in the literature, the motif of Abraham abruptly turning his head towards the angel, as well as the angel himself in the present painting were adopted in reverse from Caravaggio’s second version of St Matthew and the Angel.⁸⁸Rome, S. Luigi dei Francesi. The circular patterns of the drapery worn by Caravaggio’s angel must have impressed Lastman, who outfitted his in a similar fashion. The convoluted, twirling folds are continued in the drapery worn by Abraham and Isaac, and through to the partially unravelled turban at the bottom of the composition. The relief-like left side of the painting is complemented by the small view of a very deep landscape with a remarkably low horizon line on the right. The emphasis on surface pattern, as well as the significantly smaller dimensions of the Rijksmuseum painting, lends Lastman’s composition a very different effect from Caravaggio’s monumental work. Although the latter is one of Caravaggio’s few paintings with a landscape setting, the notion that his Sacrifice of Isaac⁹⁹Florence, Uffizi. also served as a model for the present painting is misplaced.¹⁰¹⁰This potential model was put forward by Tümpel 1991b, p. 65.

Except for a small amount of yellow pigment used for the flames of the fire in the middleground, the palette is limited to shades of black and white. It seems unlikely that the painting was meant to serve as a preparatory sketch for a larger composition. It might, however, have been intended as a preparatory sketch for an engraving.

Freise indicated a dating for the present painting prior to 1616, as he catalogued it before Lastman’s other version of the theme in the Louvre, which is from that year.¹¹¹¹Freise 1911, pp. 34-35, nos. 10, 11. The dating to around 1612 advanced by Christian Tümpel (without comment, however) can be supported.¹²¹²Tümpel 1991b, p. 66. The loose manner of painting can be compared to the 1613 St John the Evangelist on Patmos (fig. a), which has similar dimensions. The angel and Isaac’s rather delicate facial features also support a relatively early dating in Lastman’s oeuvre. While the dendrochronology indicates that a somewhat later date would be more plausible, it does not rule out the possibility that the painting could be from around 1612.¹³¹³See Technical notes. The role played by the present painting as a model for compositions by Rembrandt and Lievens has often been commented upon in the literature.¹⁴¹⁴For example, Bruyn 1970, p. 40; Broos 1972, pp. 140-41; Tümpel 1991b, p. 65.

Jonathan Bikker, 2007

See Bibliography and Rijksmuseum painting catalogues
See Key to abbreviations and Acknowledgements

This entry was published in J. Bikker (ed.), Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, I: Artists Born between 1570 and 1600, coll. cat. Amsterdam 2007, no. 166.

Freise 1911, pp. 34-35, no. 10; Bruyn 1970, p. 40; Tümpel 1991b, pp. 65-66

1887, p. 99, no. 827; 1903, p. 156, no. 1425; 1976, p. 338, no. A 1359; 2007, no. 166

J. Bikker, 2007, 'Pieter Lastman, The Sacrifice of Abraham (Genesis 22:10-12), c. 1612', in J. Bikker (ed.), Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/200108748