Abraham with his son Ishmael •

Abstract

The titles previously given to Rembrandt etching B 33 are not convincing: it is problematic to identify the boy as “Isaac” or even as “Benjamin”, and the use of the verb “caress” is also imprecise.For all their shared intimacy, the two protagonists in the etching were depicted by the artist in different physical and emotional states: the old man is tense while the child is calm; the feet of the former, turning to the right, suggest preparing to depart, while the posture of the latter hints that he is going nowhere. With regard to their close physical proximity, because of the gesture Abraham makes with his left hand, and owing to the telling positions of their feet, the two figures are closely connected to the “banishment of Hagar and Ishmael”. The work depicts Abraham and Ishmael immediately prior to their parting and after the feast celebrating Isaac’s weaning. Ishmael’s supercilious smile and the apple in his hand allude to the argument with his half-brother and also to the Old Testament. It is at this moment that Abraham hears the voice of God, instructing him to send his loved ones away; the tension in his eyes is directed towards God. Every sinew of his body and soul is strained by the ambivalence of the situation: what he has to accept is the unacceptable. It could well be that just an instant earlier he was caressing Ishmael’s chin without a care in the world, but now he gently starts to turn the child’s head in the direction of the voice, while at the same time, the blessing he is about to bestow on his son is already present in his left hand. Ishmael’s position nestled in Abraham’s lap may also refer to his legitimate descent, to the fact that he too is regarded by Abraham as his heir, as the firstborn “of his flesh”.The work is a nuanced pictorial exegesis of Genesis 21:8–13; it may have been made in the same year, 1637, in which Rembrandt produced etching B 30, depicting the banishment of Hagar and Ishmael.Luca Giordano also painted Abraham with his firstborn son, Ishmael, in a canvas that once adorned San Juan del Buen Retiro in Madrid.