Italian school, first half of the 17th century.

Italian school, first half of the 17th century.
"The Sacrifice of Isaac".
Oil on canvas adhered to board.
Measurements: 70 x 54 cm, 88 x 69 cm (frame).
The dramatic scene represented here relates the moment described in Genesis in which Abraham is being stopped in his sacrificial action by an angel. The patriarch, following divine orders, was about to sacrifice his son Isaac. God, after verifying Abraham's faithfulness to him, sends an angel to save the young man. That last moment, of maximum tension, is the one represented both in this painting and in most of the works of the period, the baroque being an era in which pathos and drama are privileged at its peak. In Isaac's place, the lamb will be sacrificed, which we see here awaiting its turn with humility. The Lamb, in turn, symbolizes Christ: foreshadowing his sacrifice for humanity. In the same line, the altar and the pyre prefigure the cross. The main scene is in the foreground, with Isaac wrapped in a cloak, wearing sandals, and prostrate before the sacrificial altar. His father holds his head with one hand while with the other he brandishes the sword, which is in turn being held by the angel. Behind them, a beautiful mountainous landscape of bluish tints opens up. The bodies have been skilfully sculpted with luminous shifts, and their expressions convey the message with naturalistic precision: Isaac's obedient attitude and Abraham's hopeful gaze before the arrival of the angel.
This is a deeply emotional work, which combines Mannerist expressiveness and the narrative richness of the Renaissance. Stylistically it can be related to miniaturists of the Italian Baroque period, works where the chromatic exquisiteness of the warm tones combine to give the figures a sculptural and ethereal presence at the same time. Formally it is inscribed within the academicism, and therefore follows classical rules of which the first is the great technical quality. Thus, the drawing is rigorous and firm, although a taste for the sumptuous, typical of the Venetian school, can be appreciated in the conception. The academicism is a direct inheritance of classicism, and hence the predilection for themes such as the one presented here, taken from mythology, although captured from a sensual and decorative point of view far from the solemnity of ancient classical art. Hence also the way of approaching the subject, recreating the mythological figures in a totally new way. Nevertheless, we can appreciate an ideal of beauty that is not based on reality, although the painter's study of nature is undeniable, but rather an idealism based on reality through his sum of experience, that is to say, an aesthetic sublimation that reflects a beauty that transcends reality.