The Trial of Abraham's Faith
Gustave Doré, 1866 · Genesis 22:10
The passage
And Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son.
Genesis 22:10
About this plate
Isaac is on the left, barefoot, climbing, with a great tangled bundle of cut wood up on his head and both arms raised to hold it there. Abraham is on the right, old and hooded, upright, a long staff in his hand. Open pale country behind them, a palm at the edge, scrub underfoot.
Neither of them is looking at the other. Isaac's face is hidden by the wood he is carrying. Abraham's is turned down and set. Doré puts a clear gap of bare ground between the two figures and leaves it empty.
The plate is captioned at verse ten, where Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son. Nothing of that is here. No altar, no ropes, no knife raised. What you are looking at is verses six to eight, on the way up.
Which is the harder picture. Verse ten lasts a second. This walk lasted three days, and the boy is carrying the wood for it.
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