Abraham, in a red hat, brings a dish to the three guests at a white table.
Bible in art · Genesis
Abraham and the Three Angels (Ms. Ludwig IX 18, fol. 11, from the Spinola Hours)
Master of James IV of Scotland · about 1510–1520
Getty Center, Los Angeles
The Spinola Hours, a book of hours — a book of daily prayers for lay readers — was painted in Bruges or Ghent about 1510–1520. This page is by the painter the museum calls the Master of James IV of Scotland.
He tells the story in two moments. Below, Abraham kneels before three young men; above, he serves them at a table under a tree while Sarah stands at the right. The band of text holds the first words of a prayer.
From the text
- Abraham bows low before the three men (Genesis 18:2)
- He sets food before them and stands by them under the tree (Genesis 18:8)
- Sarah listening nearby (Genesis 18:10)
The artist’s own
- The visitors as fair-haired angels in pale robes, as painters usually showed them
- A Flemish landscape with a wattle fence
Details
The meal
Sarah
A woman in blue stands at the right edge.
Abraham kneeling
In the lower scene he kneels with his hands joined.
On the road
Far away, small figures walk along a path.
Master of James IV of Scotland (Flemish, before 1465 – about 1541). The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles (Ms. Ludwig IX 18 (83.ML.114), fol. 11) · Tempera colors, gold, and ink, on parchment · Images provided here are believed to be in the public domain and are available under CC0 through Getty’s Open Content Program. (Getty record: "No Copyright", http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)