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An image of Abraham's sacrifice by Pietro Testa

Pietro Testa

(Italy 1612–1650)

Title
Abraham's sacrifice
Year
1645-1650
Media category
Print
Materials used
etching
Edition
only state
Dimensions

29.7 x 23.6cm platemark; 29.9 x 23.6cm sheet

Signature & date
Not signed. Not dated.
Credit
Purchased 1980
Accession number
133.1980
Location
Not on display
Further information

As told in Genesis, God commanded Abraham to sacrifice his only son Isaac as proof of his obedience. The story was interpreted as prophetic of the sacrifice of Christ. Testa depicts the moment when an angel appears and stays Abraham's arm. Another angel brings the sacrificial ram, to be substituted for Isaac. The themes of Testa's prints are often austere ones of virtue and heroic suffering. His own life was filled with unhappiness, and he committed suicide by drowning himself in the Tiber when he was thirty-eight.

Bibliography (3)

Peter Raissis (Australia) (Author), Mantegna to Piranesi - Italian Old Master Prints from the Collection of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Domain, 1998, 8. no catalogue numbers

Art Gallery of New South Wales (Australia, estab. 1874) (Author), Three years on: a selection of acquisitions 1978-1981, Sydney, 1981, 60 (illus.). cat.no. 27

Nicholas Draffin (Australia, b.1943, d.1995) (Author), Piety and Paganism, Sydney, 1991, 4, 9 (illus.), 10. no catalogue numbers

Exhibition history (4)

Three years on: Acquisitions 1978-81, Art Gallery of New South Wales, 15 Oct 1981–01 Dec 1981.

Piety and Paganism, Art Gallery of New South Wales, 13 Jul 1991–29 Sep 1991.

Mantegna to Piranesi - Italian Old Master Prints from the Collection of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Art Gallery of New South Wales, 27 Jun 1998–20 Sep 1998.

Old Europe: Prints & drawings from the collection 1500-1800, Art Gallery of New South Wales, 03 Jun 2006–06 Aug 2006.