Het offer van Abraham c. 1719 - 1769

Editor: This drawing, “Het offer van Abraham,” by Francesco Fontebasso, dating from around 1719 to 1769, is arresting. Done in ink on toned paper, it definitely conveys drama with its contrasts of light and shadow. What strikes you most about the visual symbolism in this piece? Curator: The brilliance of this work resides in its layered iconography. Notice how the artist places God the Father holding the orb of the world directly above Abraham, but his hand stays? It's an invocation of divine power and will. However, God doesn’t command the sacrifice, instead he intervenes in the very moment of decision and the moment that human sacrifice changes to that of an animal substitute. Do you perceive any emotional ambiguity in Abraham's posture? Editor: Now that you point it out, I do see the hesitation, a conflict, perhaps, between obedience and inherent compassion. It isn’t an act of righteous devotion, or wholehearted fervor, but internal struggle made external through his form. The angels also are pulling hard to the sacrifice away, intervening as Abraham hesitates! Curator: Precisely! These figures become allegorical, representative of internal human experiences when we face moral questions, but this internal, human event would have not even happened if Abraham was not faced with something completely in opposition with the moral and spiritual order. But tell me, what are those offerings lying on the altar and around it? How should we interpret them? Editor: Well, to me they’re hints to his prosperity, material items that might equal the life about to be taken... all about choices? That somehow God knows we make those difficult choices and respects us for those choices… so, like a trial for humankind, more than an old myth? Curator: Indeed. Fontebasso encapsulates an instant heavy with psychological weight, illustrating a transformative shift in spiritual understanding and value… a visual metaphor we keep grappling with centuries later.