Not on display
The work is a free adaptation of a similar composition by the Roman painter Andrea Sacchi, whose original is housed at the National Museum of Cardiff (inv. NMW A9, c. 1630, oil on canvas, 75.6 x 92 cm) from the collection of Cardinal Antonio Barberini, for whom it was commissioned. It depicts a passage from the Book of Genesis (21:1–21) recounting the appearance of an angel to Hagar and her son to show them where they could find a spring to quench the boy’s thirst, while also announcing that Ishmael was destined to be the father of a great nation. The Hermitage Museum holds another copy very similar to the one at the Prado, as it presents the same reinterpretation of Sacchi’s original (Inv. 1538, oil on canvas, 69.5 x 92 cm). A print was made of this copy while it was still in the Crozat Collection in Paris.
