The Cleveland Museum of Art
Collection Online as of March 29, 2024
The Oath of Abraham’s Servant
c. 1650–59
(Italian, 1609–1664)
Framed: 71.2 x 94 x 9 cm (28 1/16 x 37 x 3 9/16 in.); Unframed: 56 x 78.4 cm (22 1/16 x 30 7/8 in.)
Location: not on view
Did You Know?
The musical instrument at the left symbolizes love, foreshadowing the wedding the servant pledges to facilitate.Description
This work has long been called Journey of a Patriarch in the belief that the artist intended no specific subject. Recent research by graduate student Tamara Durn of Case Western Reserve University suggests that the painting instead depicts a moment in the Old Testament book of Genesis. Abraham secures a pledge from his servant to find a wife for Abraham’s son Isaac. The servant wears a zamt, a goatskin cap common in North Africa in the 1600s, here dyed an unusual shade of blue, a color associated with faith and trust, symbolizing his sacred oath.- 1969[Pinakos, New York], sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969.
- Percy, Ann. Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione, Master Draughtsman of the Italian Baroque. 1971. 40Cleveland Museum of Art, Louise d' Argencourt, and Roger Diederen. Catalogue of Paintings. Vol. III: European Paintings of the 16th, 17th, and 18th Centuries. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1974. 326-327The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 141 archive.orgThe Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Catalogue of Paintings, Part 3: European Paintings of the 16th, 17th, and 18th Centuries. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1982. Mentioned: p. 326; Reproduced: p. 327Schloder, John E. Baroque Imagery. [Cleveland]: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1984. 15, 81Dillon, Gianvittorio. Il Grechetto: il genio di Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione. Genova: Sagep, 1990. 133Duffin, Ross. RIdIM/RCMI Inventory of Music Iconography. Vol. 8. New York: Research Center for Musical Iconography, 1991. no. 176, pp. 9, 37Chong, Alan. European & American Painting in the Cleveland Museum of Art: A Summary Catalogue. Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1993. 31Orlando, Anna, Francesco Rotatori, and Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione. Gio. Benedetto Castiglione genovese: il Grechetto a Roma : committenza e opere. Genova : Sagep editori, 2022. Reproduced: p. 220, no. 32
- Year in Review: 1969. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 27-February 22, 1970).
- {{cite web|title=The Oath of Abraham’s Servant|url=false|author=Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione|year=c. 1650–59|access-date=29 March 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}
Source URL:
https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1969.1