(Naples 1604–1670)
Abraham dismissing Hagar and Ishmael,
monogrammed lower right,
oil on canvas, 168.5 x 220 cm, framed

Provenance:
Private collection, Spain;
art market, Madrid;
where acquired by the present owner

We are grateful to Riccardo Lattuada for confirming the attribution on the basis of a photograph. He dates the present painting to circa 1655–60.

The present painting is an example of Andrea Vaccaro’s artistic maturity. His work is characterised by a moderate classicism, the Caravaggesque chiaroscuro typical of Vaccaro’s earlier period which fades and is replaced by the growing influence of the classicist Bolognese style of Domenichino and Reni, and a neo-Venetian palette, inspired by Van Dyck.

The figure of Abraham in the present work shows similarities with the figure of Saint Luke in another of Vaccaro’s paintings, Saint Luke Portraying the Virgin and Child, formerly in the Church of Il Gesù Nuovo in Naples (see A. K. Tuck-Scala, Andrea Vaccaro. Naples, 1604–1670. His documented life and art, Naples 2012, pp. 137-39, fig. 15). Vaccaro used the same model for different paintings. Other similarities can be found in Vaccaro’s Lot and his daughters (Museo del Prado, Madrid, inv. no. P005136, on loan to the Museu d’Art de Girona), in particular in the rendering of the bread and jar at the bottom right of the painting and in the gesticulation of one of Lot’s daughters, which is echoed by Hagar in the present work. Remarkable are the carefully balanced distribution of the figures, the delicate rendering of texture and complexion, and the restrained intensity of mood and emotion in the present composition.

The subject of the painting, Abraham dismissing Hagar and Ishmael, is unusual. It is part of the biblical story which concludes with the episode of the angel appearing to Hagar and Ishmael in the desert, which is far more frequently depicted. The narrative describes a story from the Genesis. Hagar, the Egyptian servant of Sarah, the wife of Abraham, had been forced to marry Abraham as Sarah had been thought to be infertile. However, while Hagar delivered Abraham’s first son, Ishmael, God also granted Sarah a child, Isaac. God ordered Abraham to return to Sarah and to expel Hagar and her son Ishmael from the village. The following morning, Abraham gave mother and child bread and water and reluctantly dismissed them. Whilst on their journey towards the desert, lost and nearly dying of thirst, the two are suddenly saved by an angel.

The present work shows the intense moment of Abraham in prayer, in internal conflict, before he sends Hagar and Ishmael away. The moment is described thus: ‘So Abraham rose early in the morning, and took bread and a skin of water, and gave it to Hagar, putting it on her shoulder, along with the child, and sent her away’ (Genesis 21, 14–16). This painting’s reference to this scene is clearly identifiable through the addition of the loaves and water jar.

Andrea Vaccaro came from an important family of artists. His career was based in Naples and its immediate surroundings, where he received important ecclesiastical commissions, as well as working both for Neapolitan and Spanish patrons. It is thought he began his artistic career as a pupil of the late-Mannerist painter Girolamo Imparato, and that he was greatly influenced, from an early age, by the style of Caravaggio, particularly by the master’s chiaroscuro effects and naturalistic rendering of the figures. Later in life he moved towards the style of Guido Reni, Anthony Van Dyck, and Bernardo Cavallino. Vaccaro acquired much fame in Naples, mostly for his figurative painting. He was quickly recognised as one of the greatest exponents of the Neapolitan school of painting during the seventeenth century, between the leadership of Massimo Stanzione and the young Luca Giordano, who was at that time rising to fame. Vaccaro’s late work betrays Luca Giordano’s brilliant palette and Mattia Preti’s interplay of light and shadow as Vaccaro always managed to keep pace with the most important contemporary artistic developments.