Editor: Chiara Petrolini – Image Gallery
The Sacrifice of Isaac (1430)
from: Ms Hazine 2153, fol. 119
Istanbul, Topkapi Palace Museum, Hazine 2153, fol. 119
The sacrifice at the altar of Apollo (1571)
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
The divine messenger (Agnipurusha) rises from the sacrificial fire to bear vessel of celestial food by Nadim (1597- 1605)
from: The Ramayana
National Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C.
Aeneas finds a sow with 30 piglets, and sacrifices her to Jupiter and Juno [1530]
from: Vergil, Aeneid (Limoges, France)
London, Victoria and Albert Museum (inv. 1604-1855)
The Sacrifice of Isaac (1309)
from: Brussels Pentateuch, Brussels, 1309
(Hamburg, Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek, Codex Levy 19, f. 34v
A Pagan Sacrifice (1526)
National Gallery, London
Offering of the first-born in the Temple (1491)
from: Stephan Fridolin, Der Schatzbehalter, Nuremberg, Koberger, November 18, 1491, fol. 26r
British Museum, London
Sacrifice of Abel
from: Istituto Centrale per la Grafica
Gabinetto Disegni e Stampe, Fondo Corsini; volume 36H3
The sacrifice of Elijah (1519-1524)
Siena Cathedral
The Sacrifice of Isaac (Persia, Shiraz, Timurid period) (1410-1411)
from: Miniature from the Anthology of Sultan Iskandar (Persia, Shiraz)
Gulbenkian Museum, Lisbon
The Sacrifice of Isaac
Boston, The Harvard Art Museums
The Sacrifice of Isaac (17th)
from: Project on engraved sources of Spanish colonial art
Iglesia de San Martín, Potosí, Bolivia
The Triumph of the Eucharist, Christ as the Man of Sorrows supported by two angels standing in a chalice (1550–1600)
from: Italy
New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art
The martyrdom of Simon of Trent; a small child tied to a pole with two men cutting his skin while another holds a bowl underneath the boy's feet to collect the blood; illustration to Jacobus de Voragine, 'Passionael efte dat levent der hyllighten', Basel: Adam Petri, 1517. (1517)
from: Jacobus de Voragine, Passionael efte dat levent der hyllighten', Basel, Adam Petri, 1517
British Museum
Amor and Psyche. Psyche's father consults the oracle, animals for sacrifice (1530)
from: Apuleius, La novella di Psiche, Rome, 1530-1560, Plate: 4
The Warburg Institute, London
The god Moloch with an infant in his arms as a sacrifice, (1738)
from: ohann Lund:
University of Heidelberg
Scene of worship and human sacrifice at a native American or Mexican temple (1691)
from: Antonio de Solís y Rivadeneira, Histoire de la conquête du Mexique, ou de la Nouvelle Espagne, Paris, Boudot, 1691. p. 275
Antiochus IV Epiphanes has the altar of sacrifice desecrated (1465)
from: Bible moralisée (Bruges)
Koninklijke Bibliotheek, The Hague, KB, 76 E 7
Hanuman and the monkeys assault the demons, forcing Indrajita to break off the sacrifice that would make him invincible (1597-1605)
from: The Ramayana (Tales of Rama; The Freer Ramayana), Volume 2
National Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C.
Le Culte des Hommes (The Worship of Men), from Les Sacrifices (The Sacrifices) (1625-1627)
from: http://ark.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb42582956v
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
L'Autel du Sacrifice, Grotesques à fond noir, Divinités et Allégories (1550-1560)
from: France
V&A Museum, London
Native Americans kill Catholic martyrs with bows and arrows, stones, knives, and spears. [1579]
from: Valades, Diego, Rhetorica christiana ad concionandi, et orandi usum accommodata, Petrucci, Perugia, 1579, p. 220
John Carter Brown Collections
Manner in which the Women in India Burn (1728)
from: Picart, B. Ceremonies et Coutumes Religieuses des Peuples Idolatres, tome II, Amsterdam, 1728
London, Wellcome Collection
The Sacrifice of Isaac
from: From a late 16C copy of Jami’s Yusuf Zulaikha (IO Islamic 737)
London, British Library, IO Islamic 737
Abraham's sacrifice. This is the sacrifice of Isaac on the altar and the ram caught by its horns (ca 1278-98)
from: North French Hebrew Miscellany [ Add. MS 11639 fol. 521v]
British Library, London
People of Qulla Suyu ofering a llama and basket of coca leaves to the mountain-waqa Willka Nuta (1615)
from: Guamán Poma de Ayala, F. Primer nueva corónica y buen gobierno [1616]. Manuscript conserved in the København, Det Kongelige Bibliotek [ Royal Library, Copenhagen, Denmark ], GKS 2232 4°.
Sacrificial Knife, Zoomophic Handle [1300-1521]
Museo delle Civilità/MPE Pigorini inv. 4215
Human sacrifice among the Khonds in India: a victim (meriah) about to be dismembered (1860)
London, Wellcome Collection
Cain killing Abel, besides Cain and Abel sacrificing (1456)
from: Speculum humanae salvationis, Herzog August Bibliothek, Cod. Guelf. 81.15, fol. 34r
Herzog August Bibliothek, Wolfenbüttel
Heilige Himmelsfeuer (1731)
from: Scheuchzer, Johann Jakob, Physica Sacra (Kupfer-Bibel), Augsburg and Ulm, Christian Ulrich Wagner, 1731-1735, vol 2, p. 382, Tafel 226 (ZB III ZZ 55)Illustriert Lev 9,24
Zürich, ZB, Graphische Sammlung, Füssli J.M. Phys. Sac. ZEI 66 / emanuscripta
The sacrifice of Isaac. Isaac carries the wood for the sacrifice to Moriah (1460)
from: Speculum humanae salvationis, Newberry Library - 40, fol. 22v
Newberry Library, Chicago
Sacrifice of Isaac [1585 - 1650]
Louvre, Paris
The story of the prophet Zakariya (a conflation of Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist, and the Old Testament prophet Zachariah), who according to Muslim legend died a martyr's death. Escaping his pursuers by hiding in a tree that miraculously opened to admit him, Zakariya was betrayed by Iblis, the devil, who pointed out the hem of the prophet's cloak protruding from the trunk. The devil's forces sawed the tree apart and with it Zakariya, whose saintly aura is shown as flames bursting among the leaves. (1550-1560)
from: from a dispersed copy of the Falnama (Book of Omens)
Worcester Art Museum
Solomon sacrifices at Gabaon (1428)
from: Bayerische Staatsbibliothek - Clm 15701, fol. 144v
Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Munich
Abraham leading his son Isaac to sacrifice [1500-1550]
Louvre, Paris
Sacrifice of Polyxena (15th)
from: Boccaccio, Giovanni. Des cleres et nobles femmes, BNF, Fol. 47r.
Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris
Sati Funeral Practice (1611)
from: Johannes Isacius Pontanus, "Rerum et urbis Amstelodamensium historia", Amsterdam, 1611, p. 189
The martyrdom of Jan van Essen and Hendrik Voes (1563)
from: Foxe’s Book of Martyrs
Abraham's Sacrifice (XVII)
Metropolitan Museum, New York
Martyrdom of the prophet Zakarīyā (Zechariah) (XVI)
from: Nīšāpūrī, Isḥāq Ibn-Ibrāhīm: Qiṣaṣ al-anbiyāʾ
Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin, Diez A fol. 3
Sacrifice of Isaac (1516-1518)
Getty Museum, Los Angeles
The Sacrifice of Isaac (1348)
from: Mahzor
Darmstadt | Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek Darmstadt, Cod. Or 13, fol. 202
Vishnu, Brahman and three other deities perform a yagna, a fire sacrifice (1800-1899)
London, Wellcome Collection
The Sacrifice of Abraham [1500]
Albertina, Vienna
A Jewish priest and high priest preparing to offer a sacrifice (1785)
from: Dandré-Bardon, Michel François, Costume des anciens peuples, a l'usage des artistes / par M. Dandré Bardon ; contenant les usages religieux, civils, domestiques & militaires des Grecs, des Romains, des Israélites & des Hébreux, des Egyptiens, des Perses, des Scythes, des Amazones, des Parthes, des Daces, des Sarmates & autres peuples tant orientaux qu'occidentaux, Paris, A. Jombert, 1784-1786, vol. 3
The Sacrifice of Isaac
Boston, The Harvard Art Museums
The Sacrifice of Isaac. Abraham carrying a torch and a sword, followed by Isaac with firewood, who has no banderole with text (15th)
from: Speculum humanae salvationis Stiftsbibliothek - Cod. 166, fol. 24v
Neustift bei Brixen (Novacella), Stiftsbibliothek
The frontispiece of the Schocken Bible [1300]
from: South Germany
Execution of the baptized Jews in Trent (1475)
from: Historie von Simon zu Trient [Bayerische StaatsBibliothek, 2 Inc.s.a. 62#Beibd], fol. 12v
Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Munich
Pagan burnt offering in ancient Austria (1734-1737)
from: Alt- und Neues Oesterreich, Oder Compendieuse Universal-Historie Von dem alt- und neuen, geistlich und weltlichen Zustand dieses Lands, Bd. 4: Oesterreichisches Heydenthum, oder Völcker-Beschreibung der alten Zeiten vor und unter den Römern […], Wien: Heyinger, 1737
UB Heidelberg, B 6526 A RES
The Chochin Chinese sacrifice the first fruits of the year to their god Fo (1787 -1810)
from: A voyage to Cochinchina, in the years 1792 and 1793. To which is annexed an account of a journey made in the years 1801 and 1802, to the residence of the chief of the Booshuana nation
Abraham (1907)
London, Christie's
Landscape with aspects about sin and penance. On the right of the scene a child is being slaughtered. (1682)
from: Vries, Simon de. Curieuse aenmerckingen der bysonderste Oost en West-Indische verwonderens-waerdige dingen, deel 3, p. 6. Utrecht: J. Ribbius, 1682
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
Father Didacus Carvallius (Carvalho) being executed by submersion in a frozen lake in Japan on February 22, 1624 (1675)
from: Tanner, Mathias Societas Iesu usque ad sanguinis et vitae profusionem militans, Pragae, Typis Universitatis Carolo-Ferdinandeae in Collegio Societatis Jesu ad S. Clementem, 1675, p. 313
The martyrdom of Father Antonius Sociro, stabbed in Sri Lanka in 1637 (1675)
from: Tanner, Mathias, Societas Iesu usque ad sanguinis et vitae profusionem militans, Typis Universitatis Carolo-Ferdinandeae in Collegio Societatis Jesu ad S. Clementem, Prague 1675, p. 385
Cain killing Abel, besides Cain and Abel sacrificing (1466)
from: Speculum humanae salvationis, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek - Xylogr. 37, fol. 33r (Utrecht)
Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Munich
The woodcut on the title page of Dye histori depicts the martyrdom of Heinrich Voes and Johann van Esschen (1523). The image shows the two Augustinian monks tied to stakes amidst flames, symbolizing their execution by fire (1523)
from: Dye histori so zwen Augustiner Ordens gemartert seyn tzu Bruxel in Probant von wegen des Evangeli
Handprints of women who committed sati
Wall of the Junagarh Fort (Bikaner, Rajasthan, India)
Lycaon at left, with the face of a wolf, carrying an axe over his left shoulder and approaching Jupiter (1523)
from: Italy
The British Museum, London
Qābil (Cain) and the dead Hābil (Abel) (XVI)
from: Nīšāpūrī, Isḥāq Ibn-Ibrāhīm: Qiṣaṣ al-anbiyāʾ
Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin, Diez A fol. 3
P. Petrus Diaz Lusit. S.I. cum 4 Sociis in itinere Brasilo pro Fide Christi ab Hareticis in mari demersus.’. Pero Dias is thrown into the ocean (1675)
from: Tanner, Mathias, Societas Iesu usque ad sanguinis et vitae profusionem militans, Typis Universitatis Carolo-Ferdinandeae in Collegio Societatis Jesu ad S. Clementem, Prague 1675, p. 174
John Carter Brown Library at Brown University
The Sacrifice of Isaac (Lower left) (1244–1254)
from: Old Testament Miniatures with Latin, Persian, and Judeo-Persian inscriptions. Paris.
New York, The Morgan Library Library & Museum, MS M.638, fol. 3r
The preparation for the Passover festival: heep are slaughtered for Passover and a man purifies utensils in a cauldron over a fire (c. 1320)
from: Golden Haggadah (northern Spain)
London, British Library, Add 27210, fol. 15r
The Women Sacrificing an Ass to Priapus (1553)
Museum Boymans van Beuningen, Rotterdam
Yaja and Upayaja perform a sacrifice for the emergence of Dhrishtadyumna from the fire (1598)
from: from Adi-parva (volume one) of the Razm-nama (Book of Wars) adapted and translated into Persian by Mir Ghiyath al-Din Ali Qazvini, known as Naqib Khan (Persian, d. 1614) from the Sanskrit Mahabharata
The Cleveland Museum of Art
Satī (17th)
from: Manuscript, Iran
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, The Norma Jean Calderwood Collection of Islamic Art
The Circumcision of the infant Christ (1503-1505)
from: Germany. Series: Life of the Virgin
British Museum, London
Satī, from a Sūz u Gudāz manuscript. The pyre; the bride preparing to sacrifice herself (1650)
from: Nawʻi Khabushani, Muhammad Riz̤a, Sūz u Gudāz, fol. 31v
Chester Betty Library, Dublin, Ireland MS Pers 268, fol. 31b
A Human Sacrifice, in a Morai, in Otaheite (1785)
from: Cook, James - King, James (1785) Voyage to the Pacific Ocean, undertaken by the Command of His Majesty, for making discoveries in the Northern Hemisphere. Performed under the direction of Captains Cook, Clerke and Gore, in His Majesty's ships the Resolution and Discovery , in the years 1776, 1777, 1778, 1779 and 1780. In three volumes. and a fourth folio volume with engravings, known as Atlas
British Museum, London
Saint Simon of Trent holding the flag and a shield; standing on the body of a male figure; in a border with flowers on black ground; illustration to Ubertino Pusculino, 'Duo libri Symonidos de Judaeorum perfidia', Augsburg: Johan Ottmar, 1511 (1511)
from: Ubertino Pusculino, 'Duo libri Symonidos de Judaeorum perfidia', Augsburg: Johan Ottmar, 1511
British Museum
Pedro de Espinosa kneels before a vision of the Virgin Mary and Child while a native American prepares to kill him with an ax or hatchet. Paraguay in 1637 (1676)
from: Tanner, Mathias, Societas Iesu usque ad sanguinis et vitae profusionem militans, Typis Universitatis Carolo-Ferdinandeae in Collegio Societatis Jesu ad S. Clementem, Prague 1675, p. 495
John Carter Brown Library at Brown University
Manner in which they Bury Themselves (1728)
from: Picart, B. Ceremonies et Coutumes Religieuses des Peuples Idolatres, tome II, Amsterdam, 1728
London, Wellcome Collection
The Sacrifice of Isaac (1270-1274)
from: Psalterium Parisiense, Psautier dit de saint Louis (France)
Paris, BnF, Latin 10525, fol. 10
Il dio Quetzalcoatl (1626)
from: V. Cartari - L. Pignoria, Seconda Novissima Editione Delle Imagini De Gli Dei Delli Antichi, 1626, p. 550
The Sacrifice of Isaac [1581]
from: Ishâq al-Nishâpûrî, Histoire du Coran ou Histoires des prophètes et des rois du passé. Qesas al-anbiyâ [Persan 54, fol. 32v]
Paris, BnF, ms Persan 54 fol. 32v
The Sacrifice of Abel (1530-1535)
Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Kupferstichkabinett
The Sacrifice of Isaac (1455)
from: Gospels, Armenia (monastery of Gamałiēl in Xizan), Walters Manuscript W.543, fol. 4r
The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, Maryland
Elijah and the Priests of Baal (1525-1530)
from: Scenes for a 'Biblia Pauperum' published by Doen Pietersz
British Museum, London
The Sacrifice (Das Opfer) (1922)
New York, MoMA
The Sacrifice of Isaac (1218)
from: Psalter of Queen Ingeborg (Paris)
Chantilly, Musee Conde, Ms.9, folio 11r
The sacrifice of Isaac. Isaac carries the wood for the sacrifice to Moriah (1470)
from: peculum humanae salvationis, Marseille, Bibliothèque municipale, ms 89, fol. 22v
Bibliothèque municipale, Marseille
Ceremonial knife (tumi) with figural finial (1470–1532)
from: South America, Peru, Central highlands
The Ekahum ceremony, consisting of the release of a bull. A young bull stands in the courtyard of the deceased's house. His eldest son performs a sacrifice with rice, plantains and three brass pots of water decorated with mango leaves. The widow is dressed in her finest clothes and a feast is given to the Brahmins (ca 1820)
from: The Lives of the Brahmins [Ms Add.Or. 4354]
British Library, London