id: 129805
accession number: 1952.235.4
share license status: CC0
url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1952.235.4
updated: 2022-01-04 15:49:31.060000
Abraham Welcoming the Three Angels, 1750s. Francesco Guardi (Italian, 1712-1793). Oil on canvas; framed: 70.5 x 90.5 x 5.5 cm (27 3/4 x 35 5/8 x 2 3/16 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 1952.235.4
title: Abraham Welcoming the Three Angels
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:
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culture: Italy, 18th century
technique: oil on canvas
department: European Painting and Sculpture
collection: P - Italian 18th Century
type: Painting
find spot:
catalogue raisonne:
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CREATORS
* Francesco Guardi (Italian, 1712-1793) - artist
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measurements: Framed: 70.5 x 90.5 x 5.5 cm (27 3/4 x 35 5/8 x 2 3/16 in.); Unframed: 56.5 x 75.5 cm (22 1/4 x 29 3/4 in.)
state of the work:
edition of the work:
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inscriptions:
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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).
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LEGACY EXHIBITIONS
* Venice, Palazzo Grassi, June 5 - October 10, 1965: "Mostra dei Guardi," cat. no. 59, p. 412 (as Francesco)
Approved: Trustees' Minutes 6/21/1965
Oklahoma City Museum of Art (9/9/2010 - 1/2/2011): "The Allure of La Serenissima: Eighteenth-Century Venetian Art", cat. no. 7, p. 54.
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PROVENANCE
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fun fact:
digital description:
Three of the four pictures in the series depict episodes from the life of the Old Testament figure of Abraham, beginning with the angels appearing to Abraham. According to Genesis 18, Abraham met three men at midday, and, recognizing that they were angels, humbly bowed down to them with his face touching the ground. The encounter incongruously takes place before a marble, classical portico in which a woman lurks, presumably his wife Sarah.
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 1400s and 1600s and both treat fathers and sons as well as obedience inspired by faith.
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RELATED WORKS
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CITATIONS
Alessandro Brass, letter to Henry S. Francis, March 29, 1952, in CMA curatorial file.
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Alessandro Brass, invoice, July 5, 1952, in CMA curatorial file.
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Morassi, Antonio. Guardi. Antonio e Francesco Guardi. Venezia: Alfieri, 1973.
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Alessandro Brass, letter to Henry S. Francis, Aug. 15, 1952, in CMA curatorial file.
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Antonio Morassi, letter to Neumann, Nov. 24, 1937, in CMA curatorial file.
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Nancy Coe Wixom, letter to Alessandro Bettagno, Oct. 22, 1969, in CMA curatorial file.
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Morassi, Antonio, “A Signed Drawing by Antonio Guardi and the Problem of the Guardi Brothers,” Burlington Magazine 95 (August 1953): 267.
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Morassi, Antonio. Guardi. Antonio e Francesco Guardi. Venezia: Alfieri, 1973.
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Morassi, Antonio. Guardi. Antonio e Francesco Guardi. Venezia: Alfieri, 1973.
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Alessandro Brass, letter to Henry S. Francis, Aug. 15, 1952, in CMA curatorial file.
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Nancy Coe Wixom, letter to Alessandro Bettagno, Oct. 22, 1969, in CMA curatorial file.
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Binion, Alice. Antonio and Francesco Guardi, Their Life and Milieu: With a Catalogue of Their Figure Drawings. New York: Garland Pub, 1976.
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Pallucchini, Rodolfo. L'arte di Giovanni Battista Piazzetta. Bologna: Giuseppe Maylender, editore, 1934.
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Levey, Michael. The Eighteenth-Century Italian Schools. London: Publications Dept., National Gallery, 1956.
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The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958.
page number: Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 429
url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1958/page/n79
Heinemann, Fritz. "Mostra Dei Guardi : Ausstellung in Venedig, Juni Bis September 1965." Kunstchronik / Hrsg. Vom Zentralinstitut Für Kunstgeschichte 18 (1965): 223-246.
page number: Reproduced: P. 238
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. 146
url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1966/page/n170
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. 146
url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1969/page/n170
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
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IMAGES
web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1952.235.4/1952.235.4_web.jpg
print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1952.235.4/1952.235.4_print.jpg
full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1952.235.4/1952.235.4_full.tif