Giulia Lama

Acquired by the grandfather of the present owner in about 1920;

Thence by descent.

Recently rediscovered in a private collection, this dynamic composition is an exciting new addition to the œuvre of one of the most enigmatic and fascinating figures of the early Venetian Settecento, the female painter Giulia Lama. Masterfully arranged across two intersecting diagonals, this work depicts the Old Testament story in which Abraham’s faith is tested when he is ordered to sacrifice his only son, Isaac. Gazing heavenwards in despair, Abraham is depicted with his arm raised, wielding his knife towards the cowering figure of his son, as an angel intervenes to stop him.

Born in Venice in 1681 as the eldest of four children, Lama remained close to her family her whole life, never marrying and largely living a life of seclusion. She supported herself financially through her creative talents, including her fine lacework and paintings, which ranged from large and dramatic altarpieces, to mythological scenes and sensitively executed portraits. While it was long assumed that she was a student of Giovanni Battista Piazzetta (1683–1754), the two were in fact close friends who clearly exchanged ideas and a visual vocabulary. This is exemplified by Piazzetta's own treatment of The Sacrifice of Isaac in the Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum, Madrid, which shares compositional similarities with the present work.¹

We are grateful to Professor Bernard Aikema for endorsing the attribution to Giulia Lama on the basis of digital images. He dates the picture to around 1725–26, comparing the work to Giovanni Battista Tiepolo's monumental treatment of the subject in a spandrel of the church of Santa Maria dei Derelitti, Venice.² The dynamic handling of the work can also be compared to Lama’s recently restored fresco of Saint Matthew in the Church of San Marziale, Venice, executed in the 1720s.³

¹ Inv. no. 318; oil on canvas; 100 x 125.5 cm.; https://www.museothyssen.org/en/collection/artists/piazzetta-giambattista/sacrifice-isaac

² Oil on canvas, shaped; 220 x 364 cm.; https://www.gioiellinascostidivenezia.it/en/the-sacrifice-of-isaac/

³ Oil on canvas, shaped; 237 x 220 cm.; https://www.savevenice.org/project/giulia-lamas-four-evangelists-in-the-church-of-san-marziale