Italian school; end of the XVII century.

Italian school; late seventeenth century.
"The appearance of the angel to Hagar in the desert".
Oil on canvas. Relined.
It has a frame of the nineteenth century.
Measurements: 66 x 50 cm; 81 x 66 cm (frame).
The scene represented is taken from the Old Testament; according to the Genesis, although God promised Abraham to be the father of nations, his wife Sara was sterile. To help her husband fulfill his destiny, she offered him her slave Hagar as a concubine. Hagar soon became pregnant, and began to despise her mistress. Sarah complained bitterly to her husband, and he told her to do with the maid as she pleased. Sarah's harsh treatment of Hagar forced her to flee with her son Ishmael, but an angel urged her to return to her mistress. By the time she returned, however, Sarah conceived Isaac, and Hagar and her son Ishmael were driven from Abraham's house. Mother and son then wandered in the wilderness of Beersheba, where they ran out of water. As the boy wept, an angel appeared again, telling them that they had been heard by God; he showed them a fountain of water and gave the boy to drink, who would be protected by the Lord from then on.
Stylistically, the work shows a clear influence of Caravaggio and the followers of his style: theatrical use of a powerful spotlight, combination of this strong illumination with areas in darkness, use of diagonals, use of models inspired by the common people, although without the extraordinary realism of the Italian master in the present work because there is a greater degree of idealization in the faces.