Abraham and Isaac, Rembrandt van Rijn

The Binding of IsaacGenesis 22:1-19

32 hands · 1492–1754

And he put forth his hand and took the sword, to sacrifice his son.Genesis 22:10

  1. Sacrifice of Isaac, Andrea Mantegna1492Andrea Mantegna
  2. Sacrifice of Isaac, Raphael1511Raphael
  3. The Sacrifice of Isaac, Mariotto Albertinelli1511Mariotto Albertinelli
  4. The Sacrifice of Isaac, Antonio di Donnino di Domenico del Mazziere1525Antonio di Donnino di Domenico del Mazziere
  5. The Sacrifice of Isaac, Brunswick Monogrammist1525Brunswick Monogrammist
  6. The Sacrifice of Isaac, Andrea del Sarto1527Andrea del Sarto
  7. The Sacrifice of Isaac, Andrea del Sarto1527Andrea del Sarto
  8. The Sacrifice of Isaac, Andrea del Sarto1528Andrea del Sarto
  9. Sacrifice of Isaac, Lucas Cranach the Elder1530Lucas Cranach the Elder
  10. The sacrifice of Abraham: An angel restraints Abraham from sacrifycing Isaac; the servants wait at the foot of the mountain (Genesis 22:10-12), Lucas Cranach the Elder1531Lucas Cranach the Elder
  11. The sacrifice of Abraham, Master of the Augsburg Ecce Homo1540Master of the Augsburg Ecce Homo
  12. Landscape with the Offering of Isaac, Herri met de Bles1540Herri met de Bles
  13. Sacrifice of Isaac, Titian1542Titian
  14. Abrahams offering, Unknown1549Unknown
  15. The Sacrifice of Isaac, Paolo Veronese1585Paolo Veronese
  16. The Sacrifice of Isaac, Paolo Veronese1588Paolo Veronese
  17. Sacrifice of Isaac, Caravaggio1590Caravaggio
  18. Abraham's Sacrifice, Annibale Carracci1599Annibale Carracci
  19. Wooded Landscape with Abraham and Isaac, Jan Brueghel the Elder1599Jan Brueghel the Elder
  20. Sacrifice of Isaac, Caravaggio1603Caravaggio
  21. Sacrifice of Isaac, Cigoli1607Cigoli
  22. Wooded landscape with the sacrifice of Isaac (Genesis 22), Abraham Govaerts1607Abraham Govaerts
  23. The sacrifice of Abraham, Pieter Lastman1612Pieter Lastman
  24. The Sacrifice of Isaac, Peter Paul Rubens1612Peter Paul Rubens
  25. The Sacrifice of Isaac, Pedro Orrente1616Pedro Orrente
  26. The Angel of the Lord Preventing Abraham from Sacrificing his Son Isaac, Pieter Lastman1616Pieter Lastman
  27. Abraham's Sacrifice, Rembrandt1635Rembrandt
  28. Abraham and Isaac, Rembrandt van Rijn1645Rembrandt van RijnThis record
  29. Abraham Preparing to Sacrifice Isaac, Giovanni Antonio Burrini1685Giovanni Antonio Burrini
  30. Sacrifice of Isaac, Unknown1750Unknown
  31. The Sacrifice of Isaac, Jean Jacques Spoede1750Jean Jacques Spoede
  32. The Sacrifice of Isaac, Francesco Guardi1754Francesco Guardi

What it depicts

Genesis 22:1-19The Akedah. Nineteen verses that painters have returned to for six hundred years, almost always at the same instant — the knife raised, the angel arriving — which is the tenth verse and not the first. Where the picture stops is itself an argument about the passage.

1After these things, God tempted Abraham, and said to him: Abraham, Abraham. And he answered: Here I am.

2He said to him: Take thy only begotten son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and go into the land of vision: and there thou shalt offer him for an holocaust upon one of the mountains which I will show thee.

3So Abraham rising up in the night, saddled his ass: and took with him two young men, and Isaac his son: and when he had cut wood for the holocaust he went his way to the place which God had commanded him.

4And on the third day, lifting up his eyes, he saw the place afar off.

5And he said to his young men: Stay you here with the ass: I and the boy will go with speed as far as yonder, and after we have worshipped, will return to you.

6And he took the wood for the holocaust, and laid it upon Isaac his son: and he himself carried in his hands fire and a sword. And as they two went on together,

7Isaac said to his father: My father. And he answered: What wilt thou, son? Behold, saith he, fire and wood: where is the victim for the holocaust?

8And Abraham said: God will provide himself a victim for an holocaust, my son. So they went on together.

9And they came to the place which God had shown him, where he built an altar, and laid the wood in order upon it: and when he had bound Isaac his son, he laid him on the altar upon the pile of wood.

10And he put forth his hand and took the sword, to sacrifice his son.

11And behold an angel of the Lord from heaven called to him, saying: Abraham, Abraham. And he answered: Here I am.

12And he said to him: Lay not thy hand upon the boy, neither do thou any thing to him: now I know that thou fearest God, and hast not spared thy only begotten son for my sake.

13Abraham lifted up his eyes, and saw behind his back a ram amongst the briers sticking fast by the horns, which he took and offered for a holocaust instead of his son.

14And he called the name of that place, The Lord seeth. Whereupon even to this day it is said: In the mountain the Lord will see.

15And the angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven, saying:

16By my own self have I sworn, saith the Lord: because thou hast done this thing, and hast not spared thy only begotten son for my sake:

17I will bless thee, and I will multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven, and as the sand that is by the sea shore: thy seed shall possess the gates of their enemies.

18And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because thou hast obeyed my voice.

19Abraham returned to his young men, and they went to Bersabee together, and he dwelt there.

Read it in Genesis

Seen

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Suggested by an AI model, 2026-09-08 (hf.co/mradermacher/iconclass-vlm-GGUF:Q4_K_M), asked “Generate Iconclass labels for this image”. No one has checked these against the picture yet.

Iconclass
73D12Caiaphas and the priests conspiring against Christ48C510

Of

The subjects are the library’s own joins, each marked with who made it.

Subject
The Binding of IsaacGenesis 22:1-19

Means

No reading yet.

Rights

Credit
The Art Institute of Chicago, John H. Wrenn Memorial Collection, 1924.614. CC0.
Licence
CC0-1.0
Evidence
artic.edu api v1.14: is_public_domain=true (read 2026-08-13)
Record
https://www.artic.edu/artworks/13084
IIIF
manifest
Abraham and Isaac, Rembrandt van Rijn
Abraham and Isaac — Rembrandt van Rijn1645

How this join was made

This join is editorial: no notation was involved, and an editor anchored the picture to the passage directly.

Rembrandt's 1645 etching is not the knife and not the angel: it is the walk to Moriah, the conversation of verses 7 and 8. Isaac carries the bundle of wood and asks where the victim is; Abraham gestures upward as he answers that God will provide one. The picture stops before anything happens, which is the reading — the father already knows what he is walking toward and the son is still asking.

Also by Rembrandt van Rijn

16
Old Man with a Gold Chain, Rembrandt van Rijn
Old Man with a Gold ChainRembrandt van Rijn1631The Art Institute of Chicago
Bust of a Man in Oriental Dress, Rembrandt van Rijn
Bust of a Man in Oriental DressRembrandt van Rijn1635Rijksmuseum
Adam and Eve, Rembrandt van Rijn
Adam and EveRembrandt van Rijn1638The Art Institute of Chicago
Landscape with Stone Bridge, Rembrandt van Rijn
Landscape with Stone BridgeRembrandt van Rijnc. 1638Rijksmuseum
Still Life with Dead Peacocks, Rembrandt van Rijn
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Three Oriental Figures (Jacob and Laban?), Rembrandt van Rijn
Three Oriental Figures (Jacob and Laban?)Rembrandt van Rijn1641The Art Institute of Chicago
Officers and other civic guardsmen of District II in Amsterdam, under the command of Captain Frans Banninck Cocq and Lieutenant Willem van Ruytenburch, known as ‘The Night Watch’, Rembrandt van Rijn
Officers and other civic guardsmen of District II in Amsterdam, under the command of Captain Frans Banninck Cocq and Lieutenant Willem van Ruytenburch, known as ‘The Night Watch’Rembrandt van Rijn1642Rijksmuseum
Kostverloren Castle in Decay, Rembrandt van Rijn
Kostverloren Castle in DecayRembrandt van Rijnc. 1652The Art Institute of Chicago

Within fifty years of 1645

1038
Watch in the form of a Lesser George, Nicholas Vallin
Watch in the form of a Lesser GeorgeNicholas Vallinca. 1600Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Miniature collector's cabinet, Bernard Salomon
Miniature collector's cabinetBernard Salomonca. 1600Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Valance with The Story of Moses, Bernard Salomon
Valance with The Story of MosesBernard Salomonca. 1600Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Valance with The Story of Moses, Bernard Salomon
Valance with The Story of MosesBernard Salomonca. 1600Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Valance with The Story of Moses, Bernard Salomon
Valance with The Story of MosesBernard Salomonca. 1600Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Portrait of a Noblewoman Dressed in Mourning, Jacopo da Empoli
Portrait of a Noblewoman Dressed in MourningJacopo da Empolic. 1600The Art Institute of Chicago
Design for a Wall Decoration: Representations of the Ascension and of the Conversion of the Ethiopian Eunuch, Giovanni de' Vecchi
Design for a Wall Decoration: Representations of the Ascension and of the Conversion of the Ethiopian EunuchGiovanni de' Vecchica. 1600Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Isabella d'Este, Lucas Emil Vorsterman after Sir Peter Paul Rubens
Isabella d'EsteLucas Emil Vorsterman after Sir Peter Paul RubensNational Gallery of Art

Also at The Art Institute of Chicago

770
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Cauldron, China
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Relief Showing the Head of a Winged Genius, Neo-Assyrian
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Altar, Ancient Greek
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Similar picturesFound by visual likeness

8 pictures

Visual resemblances suggested by the model. A match does not establish a shared subject or historical connection.

Print, Jean-Baptiste Pillement, French, 1728–1808
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Les Précautions (The Precautions), from Le Monument du Costume, Pietro Antonio Martini, Italian, 1738–1797
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0.87
Flight into Egypt: The Embarkment of the Holy Family, Giovanni Battista Tiepolo (Italian, 1696–1770)
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The Strolling Musicians, Rembrandt van Rijn (Dutch, 1606–1669)
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Scherzi di Fantasia: Magician Pointing Out a Burning Head to Two Youths, Giovanni Battista Tiepolo (Italian, 1696–1770)
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Family Scene, Honoré-Victorin Daumier
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Illustration to Roderick Random, by Tobias Smollett, Francis Hayman
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Acte I, Unknown
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In the stacks

Not yet checked2

Passages in the library’s own holdings that name this maker. The model ranked them; nobody has checked that the name means this person.

  1. Seven Discourses on Art · Joshua, Sir Reynolds

    By this mode of reasoning Rembrandt has a higher place than Raffaelle. But a very little reflection will serve to show us that these particularities cannot be nature: for how can that be the nature of man, in which no two individuals are the same? It plainly appears that as a work is conducted under the influence of general ideas or partial it is principally to be considered as the effect of a good or a bad taste. As beauty therefore does not consist in taking what lies immediately before
    0.69

  2. principles of art history · heinrich wolfflin

    PAINTING 95 Rembrandt The great Ecce Homo (etching of 1650) is an analogous case. As is known, the schema of the composition dates back to a Cinquecentist, Lucas van Leyden. A house wall and a terrace before it, seen frontally; people who have taken up their stand side by side in rows on and in front of the terrace—how are we to get a baroque picture out of all that? We learn with Rembrandt that it is not the subject but the treatment which matters. While Lucas van Leyden exhausts
    0.68

Connections

Depicts

  • The Binding of IsaacRembrandt's 1645 etching is not the knife and not the angel: it is the walk to Moriah, the conversation of verses 7 and 8. Isaac carries the bundle of wood and asks where the victim is; Abraham gestures upward as he answers that God will provide one. The picture stops before anything happens, which is the reading — the father already knows what he is walking toward and the son is still asking.

Next

Rembrandt van Rijn made Abraham and Isaac, and made these too.

Made in the seventeenth century, like Abraham and Isaac.

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