Abraham and Isaac (Titian)
painting by Titian
Abraham and Isaac, also known as the Sacrifice of Isaac (Italian: Sacrificio di Isacco), is an oil painting by the Venetian painter Titian. It was made in about 1543–1544 for the church of Santo Spirito, but is now in the basilica of Santa Maria della Salute.
Subject
Abraham was commanded by God to offer up Isaac as a human sacrifice in the land of Moriah. Proceeding to obey, he was prevented by an angel as he was about to sacrifice his son, and slew a ram which he found on the spot. As a reward for his obedience he received another promise of a numerous seed and abundant prosperity.
History
It was about the beginning of the 1540s that Titian received commissions for a great number of pictures from the brothers of the church of Santo Spirito, who possessed the work of his early career, the San Marco Enthroned. One altarpiece represented the Descent of the Holy Spirit, but having been damaged had to be restored later by Titian. The picture on the same subject, which is now in the Church of the Salute, belongs to another period in Titian's activity. The whole collection of art treasures from Santo Spirito was transported to the Church of the Salute in the seventeenth century, where they remain today.
In the ceiling of the sacristy of the Salute, above the altar, are three creations of this period (c. 1543–1544): Cain and Abel, Abraham and Isaac, and David and Goliath.
“Abraham and Isaac (Titian)” enters the record as painting by Titian. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Abraham, Isaac and Titian can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 26, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q86674529. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1543 and 1544.
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This entry incorporates text from “Abraham and Isaac (Titian)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.