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Source Description
This work has long been called <em>Journey of a Patriarch</em> in the belief that the artist intended no specific subject. 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 <em>zamt</em>, 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.
Scholar Source Context
Document identity
localId
144255
label
The Oath of Abraham’s Servant
core
obj
dtoType
painting
pageCount
1
Source metadata
id
144255
contentType
painting
title
The Oath of Abraham’s Servant
description
This work has long been called <em>Journey of a Patriarch</em> in the belief that the artist intended no specific subject. 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 <em>zamt</em>, 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.
date
c. 1650–59
citation
rights
CC0
rightsUri
CC0
language
en
wikidata
Q60470179
creators
2079
genreSpecific
Painting
imageCount
1
source
import
dimensionsRaw
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.)
cul
Italy, 17th century
accession
1969.1
Source extras
tec
oil on canvas
tombstone
The Oath of Abraham’s Servant, c. 1650–59. Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione (Italian, 1609–1664). Oil on canvas; 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.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund, 1969.1
collection
P - Italian 16th & 17th Century
didYouKnow
The musical instrument at the left symbolizes love, foreshadowing the wedding the servant pledges to facilitate.
citations
citation
Durn, Tamara. "The subject of G.B. Castiglione's <em>Journey of a Patriarch </em>identified?" Essay, Case Western Reserve University.
citation
Richards, Louise S. “A Painting and Two Drawings by Castiglione.” <em>The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art</em> 57, no. 8 (November 1970): 272–280. <br>Published as: <em>Journey of a Patriarch</em>
page_number
Mentioned and reproduced: p. 272-276, figs. 1, 2
citation
Percy, Ann. <em>Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione, Master Draughtsman of the Italian Baroque</em>. 1971.
page_number
40
citation
Cleveland Museum of Art, Louise d' Argencourt, and Roger Diederen. <em>Catalogue of Paintings</em>. Vol. III: <em>European Paintings of the 16th, 17th, and 18th Centuries</em>. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1974.
page_number
326-327
citation
The Cleveland Museum of Art. <em>Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978</em>. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 141
citation
The Cleveland Museum of Art.<em> The Cleveland Museum of Art Catalogue of Paintings, Part 3: European Paintings of the 16th, 17th, and 18th Centuries</em>. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1982.
page_number
Mentioned: p. 326; Reproduced: p. 327
citation
Schloder, John E. <em>Baroque Imagery</em>. [Cleveland]: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1984.
page_number
15, 81
citation
Goldfarb, Hilliard T. “Boucher’s ‘Pastoral Scene with Family at Rest’ and the Image of the Pastoral in Eighteenth-Century France.” <em>The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art</em> 71, no. 3 (March 1984): 82–89.<br>Published as: <em>Journey of a Patriarch</em>
page_number
Mentioned and reproduced: p. 84-85, fig. 7
citation
Dillon, Gianvittorio. <em>Il Grechetto: il genio di Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione</em>. Genova: Sagep, 1990.
page_number
133
citation
Duffin, Ross. <em>RIdIM/RCMI Inventory of Music Iconography</em>. Vol. 8. New York: Research Center for Musical Iconography, 1991.
page_number
no. 176, pp. 9, 37
citation
Chong, Alan. <em>European & American Painting in the Cleveland Museum of Art: A Summary Catalogue</em>. Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1993.
page_number
31
citation
Orlando, Anna, Francesco Rotatori, and Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione. Gio. Benedetto Castiglione genovese: il Grechetto a Roma : committenza e opere. Genova : Sagep editori, 2022.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 220, no. 32
creditline
Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund
updatedAt
2026-05-29 07:24:15.138000
sourceId
144255
dept
European Painting and Sculpture
coll
P - Italian 16th & 17th Century
med
oil on canvas
creatorTags
male
thumbnail_url
image_url
Single page context
seq
1
pageIndex
0
type
photo
mediaId
85b3c00b3fa8c51f