Abraham Welcoming the Three Angels (1750s): Art, History and Details

Abraham Welcoming the Three Angels (1750s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Francesco Guardi (Italian, 1712–1793).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

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.

Object facts

• Title: Abraham Welcoming the Three Angels
• Date: 1750s
• Creator attribution: Francesco Guardi (Italian, 1712–1793)
• Culture: Italy
• Type: Painting
• Technique: oil on canvas
• Dimensions: 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.)
• Collection: P - Italian 18th Century
• Department: European Painting and Sculpture
• Accession number: 1952.235.4

Collection credit

Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Alessandro Brass, letter to Henry S. Francis, March 29, 1952, in CMA curatorial file.
• Alessandro Brass, invoice, July 5, 1952, in CMA curatorial file.
• Morassi, Antonio. Guardi. Antonio e Francesco Guardi. Venezia: Alfieri, 1973.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.