Abraham chassant Agar et Ismaël

Guercino painted this in 1657, near the end of a long career, for his own home town of Cento, which wanted a fine picture to present as a gift to Cardinal Imperiali, the pope's governor in nearby Ferrara. The story is a painful one from Genesis. At his wife Sarah's insistence, the patriarch Abraham sends away Hagar, the servant who had borne him a son, together with their boy Ishmael, out into the wilderness with little more than bread and water. Guercino gives it almost no drama. Abraham gestures them off gently, half-turned away, unable to look. Hagar weeps, and Ishmael's face crumples. By this stage the painter had softened his early bold contrasts into these warm, quiet tones and loose brushwork.