id: 129804 accession number: 1952.235.3 share license status: CC0 url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1952.235.3 updated: 2023-03-09 12:47:46.829000 The Angels Appearing to Abraham, 1750s. Francesco Guardi (Italian, 1712–1793). Oil on canvas; framed: 71 x 90.5 x 7 cm (27 15/16 x 35 5/8 x 2 3/4 in.); unframed: 56.5 x 75.5 cm (22 1/4 x 29 3/4 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund 1952.235.3 title: The Angels Appearing to Abraham title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: 1750s creation date earliest: 1750 creation date latest: 1759 current location: creditline: Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund copyright: --- culture: Italy, 18th century technique: oil on canvas department: European Painting and Sculpture collection: P - Italian 18th Century type: Painting find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- CREATORS * Francesco Guardi (Italian, 1712–1793) - artist --- measurements: Framed: 71 x 90.5 x 7 cm (27 15/16 x 35 5/8 x 2 3/4 in.); Unframed: 56.5 x 75.5 cm (22 1/4 x 29 3/4 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: inscriptions: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS title: The Allure of La Serenissima: Eighteenth-Century Venetian Art opening date: 2010-09-09T00:00:00 The Allure of La Serenissima: Eighteenth-Century Venetian Art. Oklahoma City Museum of Art, Oklahoma City, OK (organizer) (September 9, 2010-January 2, 2011). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS * Oklahoma City Museum of Art (9/9/2010 - 1/2/2011): "The Allure of La Serenissima: Eighteenth-Century Venetian Art", cat. no. 6, p. 54. --- PROVENANCE Possibly Federigo Giovanelli, Venice date: Until 1800 footnotes: *
In 1934, Rodolfo Pallucchini mentions a Guardi painting depicting the “Sacrifice of Abraham” as possibly appearing in the 1731 will of Count Giovanni Benedetto Giovanelli.  In 1964, Terisio Pignatti argued that several Guardi copies (the Cleveland paintings are all copies after paintings by other artists) listed in the 1800 inventory attached to the will of Federigo Giovanelli could be the same ones recorded in the 1731 will as executed by the “Fratelli Guardi.”  However, there are two problems with this suggestion: First, the Cleveland Guardi pictures are dated to the 1750s – twenty years after the 1731 will.  Second, Alice Binion notes that the Guardi copies recorded in 1731 did not remain in the possession of the Guardi family, but rather were bequeathed to a certain Antonio de Caroli (Archivio Venice, Atti Marcello Girolamo – Testamenti 612, No. 345: “Al sunominato Sigr Antonio de Caroli mio amorevole…lascio le copie de quadri, che egli tiene di mia ragione, fatte dalli Fratelli Guardi…”).  Thus, if the Cleveland Guardis are indeed those mentioned in the inventory of 1800, they would have come into the Giovanelli family’s possession sometime after 1731 and would not be found in both inventories.  
citations: Baroness Valerie Groedel, Budapest date: ? footnotes: citations: (Neumann Gallery, Vienna) date: By 1933? footnotes: *
In his 1953 article in Burlington Magazine, “A Signed Drawing by Antonio Guardi and the Problem of the Guardi Brothers,” Antonio Morassi refers to the Cleveland pictures: “four canvases with scenes from the Old Testament…which twenty years ago I recognized in the Neumann Gallery as works by Guardi and which, after various vicissitudes, have recently been acquired by Cleveland.”  If Morassi’s recollection is correct, the paintings would have been with the Neumann Gallery by 1933; this date is consistent with Rodolfo Pallucchini's reference to this “recently discovered” Guardi painting in his L’arte di Giovanni Battista Piazzetta, published in 1934.

citations: (Francesco Pospisil, Venice, sold through Alessandro Brass to the Cleveland Museum of Art) date: 1952 footnotes: citations: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio date: 1952- footnotes: citations: --- fun fact: digital description: After their initial meeting, Abraham graciously offered to feed the angels and wash their feet. Following the meal, they announce that his wife Sarah, long past child-bearing age, will soon have a son, fulfilling a promise God had made earlier to Abraham. The artist presents the moment of revelation, the angels resplendent in their pastel gowns and feathery wings, with Sarah learning the news while hiding behind their cottage door. wall description: This series of paintings predominantly tells the Old Testament story of Abraham and Isaac, and each of the canvases treats the interaction of humans and angels. In three works, angels appear to Abraham and, in one particularly dramatic canvas, an angel intercepts Abraham before he sacrifices his own son. However, the narrative of Tobias and the Angel comes from an entirely different book of the Bible. The blind Tobit sends his son Tobias off to collect a sum of money in the distant town of Media, with the angel Raphael accompanying him in disguise as a human. This particular work depicts Raphael overseeing Tobias catching a fish, which would later be used to cure his father's blindness. Though the depiction the stories seems incongruous, the Sacrifice of Isaac and Tobias and the Angels were popular in Italian art between the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries and both treat fathers and sons as well as obedience inspired by faith. --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS Binion, Alice. Antonio and Francesco Guardi, Their Life and Milieu: With a Catalogue of Their Figure Drawings. New York: Garland Pub, 1976. page number: url: Pallucchini, Rodolfo. L'arte di Giovanni Battista Piazzetta. Bologna: Giuseppe Maylender, editore, 1934. page number: url: Levey, Michael. The Eighteenth-Century Italian Schools. London: Publications Dept., National Gallery, 1956. page number: url: Morassi, Antonio. Guardi. Antonio e Francesco Guardi. Venezia: Alfieri, 1973. page number: url: Alessandro Brass, letter to Henry S. Francis, Aug. 15, 1952, in CMA curatorial file page number: url: Nancy Coe Wixom, letter to Alessandro Bettagno, Oct. 22, 1969, in CMA curatorial file page number: url: Alessandro Brass, letter to Henry S. Francis, Aug. 15, 1952, in CMA curatorial file page number: url: Antonio Morassi, letter to Neumann, Nov. 24, 1937, in CMA curatorial file. page number: url: Nancy Coe Wixom, letter to Alessandro Bettagno, Oct. 22, 1969, in CMA curatorial file. page number: url: Morassi, Antonio, “A Signed Drawing by Antonio Guardi and the Problem of the Guardi Brothers,” Burlington Magazine 95 (August 1953): 267. page number: url: Morassi, Antonio. Guardi. Antonio e Francesco Guardi. Venezia: Alfieri, 1973. page number: url: Alessandro Brass, letter to Henry S. Francis, March 29, 1952, in CMA curatorial file. page number: url: Alessandro Brass, invoice, July 5, 1952, in CMA curatorial file. page number: url: Morassi, Antonio. Guardi. Antonio e Francesco Guardi. Venezia: Alfieri, 1973. page number: url: The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. page number: Reproduced: p. 145 url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1966/page/n169 The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. page number: Reproduced: p. 145 url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1969/page/n169 Cleveland Museum of Art. Catalogue of Paintings. Pt. 3. European Paintings of the 16th, 17th, and 18th Centuries. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1974. page number: Reproduced: cat. 159C, p. 360 - 363 url: The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. page number: Reproduced: p. 143 url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1978/page/n163 --- IMAGES web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1952.235.3/1952.235.3_web.jpg print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1952.235.3/1952.235.3_print.jpg full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1952.235.3/1952.235.3_full.tif