Abraham Casting out Hagar and Ishmael is a 1657 oil on canvas painting by Guercino, commissioned from him by the town of Cento to present to cardinal Lorenzo Imperiali, papal legate in Ferrara. [1] It hangs now in the Pinacoteca di Brera in Milan. [2]
The subject of the painting was taken from the Book of Genesis. It depicts the episode of the expulsion of Hagar and her son Ishmael by Abraham. According to the Genesis, Hagar was the slave of Sarah, Abraham's wife, and when he was 86 years old, she asked him to sleep with Hagar so that she could conceive a son. Fourteen years later, Sarah gave birth to a son, Isaac, to Abraham, who was 100 years old. Sarah ordered Abraham to send Hagar and Ishmael away, which he did, after being assured by God that it was done in accordance with His will.
Guercino chose the moment when Abraham dismisses Hagar. All four characters are close to each other. Abraham is traditionally depicted with a beard and a turban. He is facing the slave. At her side hangs a travel pouch. Behind Abraham's back, with her back to the patriarch, is Sarah. She is responsible for the whole situation, but despite being turned away, she listens carefully to the conversation. On the opposite side is Ishmael crying, trying to protect himself in his mother's arms. Abraham seems to be torn apart. The gesture of the right hand strongly orders departure, but the left hand makes the sign of blessing. [3]
Abraham is the common Hebrew patriarch of the Abrahamic religions, including Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In Judaism, he is the founding father of the special relationship between the Jews and God; in Christianity, he is the spiritual progenitor of all believers, whether Jewish or non-Jewish; and in Islam, he is a link in the chain of Islamic prophets that begins with Adam and culminates in Muhammad.
The Book of Genesis is the first book of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament. Its Hebrew name is the same as its first word, Bereshit. Genesis is an account of the creation of the world, the early history of humanity, and of Israel's ancestors and the origins of the Jewish people.
Isaac is one of the three patriarchs of the Israelites and an important figure in the Abrahamic religions, including Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. He was the son of Abraham and Sarah, the father of Jacob and Esau, and the grandfather of the twelve tribes of Israel.
Sarah is a biblical matriarch and prophetess, a major figure in Abrahamic religions. While different Abrahamic faiths portray her differently, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam all depict her character similarly, as that of a pious woman, renowned for her hospitality and beauty, the wife and half-sister of Abraham, and the mother of Isaac. Sarah has her feast day on 1 September in the Catholic Church, 19 August in the Coptic Orthodox Church, 20 January in the LCMS, and 12 and 20 December in the Eastern Orthodox Church.
Ishmael was the first son of Abraham, the common patriarch of the Abrahamic religions; and is considered as a prophet in Islam. His mother was the Egyptian Hagar. According to the Genesis account, he died at the age of 137.
Hagar is a biblical woman. According to the Book of Genesis, she was an Egyptian slave, a handmaiden of Sarah, whom Sarah gave to her own husband Abram as a wife to bear him a child. Abraham's firstborn son, through Hagar, Ishmael, became the progenitor of the Ishmaelites, generally taken to be the Arabs. Various commentators have connected her to the Hagrites, perhaps claiming her as their eponymous ancestor. Hagar is alluded to, although not named, in the Quran, and Islam considers her Abraham's second wife.
Bakkah, is a place mentioned in sura 3, ayah 96 of the Qur'an, a verse sometimes translated as: " Verily the first House set apart unto mankind was that at Bakkah, blest, and a guidance unto the worlds",
In the Book of Mormon, Ishmael1 is the righteous friend of the prophet Lehi in Jerusalem. When Lehi takes his family into the wilderness, Lehi brings Ishmael and his family too. The daughters of Ishmael marry the sons of Lehi, but the sons of Ishmael join Laman and Lemuel in their rebellion against Nephi. Ishmael dies in the wilderness, and is buried at Nahom. After their arrival in the Americas, the children of Ishmael side with the Lamanites, except for those daughters who married Sam, Nephi, and Zoram1.
Keturah was a wife and a concubine of the Biblical patriarch Abraham. According to the Book of Genesis, Abraham married Keturah after the death of his first wife, Sarah. Abraham and Keturah had six sons.
The Ishmaelites were a collection of various Arabian tribes, confederations and small kingdoms described in Islamic tradition as being descended from and named after Ishmael, a prophet according to the Quran, the first son of Abraham and the Egyptian Hagar.
Vayeira, Vayera, or Va-yera is the fourth weekly Torah portion in the annual Jewish cycle of Torah reading. It constitutes Genesis 18:1–22:24. The parashah tells the stories of Abraham's three visitors, Abraham's bargaining with God over Sodom and Gomorrah, Lot's two visitors, Lot's bargaining with the Sodomites, Lot's flight, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, how Lot's daughters became pregnant by their father, how Abraham once again passed off his wife Sarah as his sister, the birth of Isaac, the expulsion of Hagar, disputes over wells, and the binding of Isaac.
The Desert of Paran or Wilderness of Paran, is a location mentioned in the Hebrew Bible. It is one of the places where the Israelites spent part of their 40 years of wandering after the Exodus, and was also a home to Ishmael, and a place of refuge for David.
Hājar, known as Hagar in the Hebrew Bible, was the wife of the patriarch and Islamic prophet Ibrāhīm (Abraham) and the mother of Ismā'īl (Ishmael). She is a revered woman in the Islamic faith. According to Muslim belief, she was the daughter of the king of Egypt who gifted her to Ibrahim's wife Sarah. Although not mentioned by name in the Qur'an, she is referenced and alluded to via the story of her husband. She eventually settled in the Desert of Paran, seen as the Hejaz in the Islamic view, with her son Ishmael. Hajar is honoured as an especially important matriarch of monotheism, as Ishmael was the ancestor of Muhammad.
Abraham is known as the patriarch of the Israelite people through Isaac, the son born to him and Sarah in their old age and the patriarch of Arabs through his son Ishmael, born to Abraham and Hagar, Sarah's Egyptian servant.
The Outcast is an 1851 oil painting by Victorian artist Richard Redgrave, depicting a family's reaction to a daughter bearing an illegitimate child.
Ishmael is regarded as a prophet and messenger and the ancestor to the Ishmaelites in Islam. He is the son of Ibrahim (Abraham), born to Hajar (Hagar). Ismail is also associated with Mecca and the construction of the Kaaba. Ismail is considered the ancestor to Muhammad.
Agnieszka Biedrzycka is a Polish historian and writer from the Institute of History of the Polish Academy of Sciences (PAN). She obtained her doctorate in December 2002 from the Faculty of History of the Jagiellonian University in Kraków, Poland. Biedrzycka serves as research scientist and editor for the multi-volume Polish Biographical Dictionary published by PAN incrementally. She is in charge of the History of Poland in the Early Modern era department. Since the 1989 return to democracy from under the Soviet-led totalitarian control, many distortions printed there have already been corrected. Her professional interest in research work gave impetus to the book about the history of Lwów in the Second Polish Republic before the invasion of Poland, which was followed by the systematic destruction of the city's Polish heritage by the Soviet Union.
Kazimierz Stabrowski was a Polish painter, and director of the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. He also founded the first lodges of the Theosophical Society in Poland.
Biblical Egypt, or Mizraim, is a theological term used by historians and scholars to differentiate between Ancient Egypt as it is portrayed in Judeo-Christian texts and what is known about the region based on archaeological evidence. Along with Canaan, Egypt is one of the most commonly mentioned locations in the Bible, and its people, the Egyptians, play important roles in the story of the Israelites. Although interaction between Egypt and nearby Semitic-speaking peoples is attested in archaeological sources, they do not otherwise corroborate the biblical account.
Hagar International is a Swiss-based global humanitarian nonprofit organization offering services and assistance to people who have escaped sexual slavery and/or human trafficking. It is focused on helping victims with recovery, and was founded in Cambodia in 1994 by Pierre Tami. Hagar started providing services to Afghanistan and Vietnam in 2009. It expanded to Myanmar in 2014. Hagar International has been noted for working with male victims in addition to women and children. A main goal is to help victims achieve stability and financial independence though skill-based training and job opportunity programs. Hagar International recommends an ongoing process which starts with the victim, then the victim's family, and finally helps integrate them into the community. The organization often works directly with local and federal governments to improve social services. Several children from their special "catch-up" schools have been able to graduate and go to university. They have a legal protection unit, which was established in 2011, and helps provide legal services and representation in court.