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The painting illustrates the passage of the Old Testament in which God ordered Abraham to sacrifice his only son, Isaac. Caravaggio faithfully depicts the crucial moment of the dramatic story, when Abraham, at the very moment in which he is about to sacrifice Isaac, is blocked by an angel sent by the Lord. "Do not lay a hand on the boy," he said. "Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son." God's messenger says to Abraham (Genesis 22, verse 12) pointing with his left hand at a ram to sacrifice instead. Caravaggio chose to humanise the angel's figure, placing him alongside Abraham as a solid presence that firmly grips the old man's wrist.
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