1604 (ca.), Caravaggio (Michelangelo Merisi), Sacrifice of Isaac (detail) -- Uffizi Gallery (Florence)
From the museum label: The angel's vigorous gesture terminates in the figure of Isaac, diagonally cutting the scene in two. The intense expression of fear on the face of the boy who, in looking imploringly at us, sucks us into his physical and psychological anguish, is something of a novelty in the traditional depiction of the subject inasmuch as it focuses our attention on the concept of sacrifice, thus heralding Christ's own sacrifice. Depicting terror, on the other hand, was nothing new for Caravaggio, who had already portrayed it in the Medusa (Room 96). This picture was painted for Cardinal Maffeo Barberini, who was to become pope twenty years later, taking the name of Urban VIII.
Link to the full painting.
1604 (ca.), Caravaggio (Michelangelo Merisi), Sacrifice of Isaac (detail) -- Uffizi Gallery (Florence)
From the museum label: The angel's vigorous gesture terminates in the figure of Isaac, diagonally cutting the scene in two. The intense expression of fear on the face of the boy who, in looking imploringly at us, sucks us into his physical and psychological anguish, is something of a novelty in the traditional depiction of the subject inasmuch as it focuses our attention on the concept of sacrifice, thus heralding Christ's own sacrifice. Depicting terror, on the other hand, was nothing new for Caravaggio, who had already portrayed it in the Medusa (Room 96). This picture was painted for Cardinal Maffeo Barberini, who was to become pope twenty years later, taking the name of Urban VIII.
Link to the full painting.