Public data from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Learn more
About the Artwork
This work has long been called Journey of a Patriarch 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 zamt, 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.
Provenance
1969: [Pinakos, New York], sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art.
Exhibition history
Year in Review: 1969. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 27-February 22, 1970).
Quick Overview
- Artist
- Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione (Italian, 1609–1664)
- Date
- c. 1650–59
- Medium
- oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- 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.)
- Type
- Painting
- Classification
- Painting
- Department
- European Painting and Sculpture
- Credit line
- Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund
- Accession no.
- 1969.1
More by Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione in museum collections
Data retrieved from the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.
Open-access museum record · AT-00009698
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