Editor: Chiara Petrolini – Image Gallery
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
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
Brahmin undergoing the test of fire after prolonged penance and yoga practices; Yogi dragging heavy iron chains; and a man tied to a tree who has chosen to embrace death (1670)
from: Abraham Rogerius, Le Théâtre de l’idolatrie ou la porte ouverte, Amsterdam, Jean Schipper, 1670, p. 252
Samson destroys the temple (1270-1274)
from: Psautier dit de saint Louis
Bibliothèque nationale de France, Ms Latin 10525, fol. 62
The Sacrifice of Elijah (1552-1557)
Stadtgeschichtliches Museum Leipzig
Purported Martyrdom of Simone of Trent (1475)
from: Historie von Simon zu Trient [Bayerische StaatsBibliothek, 2 Inc.s.a. 62#Beibd]
Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Munich
The Sacrifice of Isaac (Persia, Shiraz, Timurid period) (1410-1411)
from: Miniature from the Anthology of Sultan Iskandar (Persia, Shiraz)
Gulbenkian Museum, Lisbon
Purported Martyrdom of Simon of Trent (1505-1515)
Museo Diocesano Tridentino, Trento - Tridentine Diocesan Museum, Trent
Agnus Dei. (1635-1640)
Museo del Prado, Madrid
The Circumcision of Christ (1600-1610)
from: Netherland. Series: The early life of Christ
British Museum, London
Chased from Chapultepec, the Aztecs, led by their chief Tenoch, offer gifts to the king of Colhuacan and settle in the city; above, a group witnessing a sacrifice ceremony (ca 1596)
from: Tira de Tepechpan [Ms Mexicain 13–14, planche 4]
Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris
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
Lycaon Transformed into a Wolf (1589)
from: Metamorphoses by Ovid, book 1, plate 9
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Barbaric Sacrifice of the Mexicans (1770)
from: Jean-François de La Croix, Dictionnaire historique des cultes religieux établis dans le monde depuis son origine jusqu'à présent... - Paris : Vincent, 1770, vol. 3, part. 2, p. 42
Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris
The Sacrifice of Isaac (15th)
from: Marco Polo, Livre des merveilles ; Odoric de Pordenone, Itinerarium de mirabilibus orientalium Tartarorum, traduit en français par Jean le Long ; Guillaume de Boldensele,Liber de quibusdam ultramarinis partibus et praecipue de Terra sancta, traduit en français par Jean Le Long et Lettres adressées au pape et réponse de Benoît XII, traduit en français par Jean Le Long ; De l’estat et du gouvernement du grant Kaan de Cathay, empereur des Tartares, traduit en français par Jean Le Long ; Jean de Mandeville, Voyages; Hayton, Fleur des estoires de la terre d’Orient ; Riccoldo da Monte di Croce,Liber peregrinationis, traduit en français par Jean Le Long (France)
Paris, BnF, Français 2810, fol. 167
The Spirit of Piety; to the left, two lambs burn on a sacrificial altar, Abel kneels by his offering (1595)
from: Antwerp
The British Museum, London
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
The Sacrifice of Isaac (13th)
from: Psalterium [psautier latin dit de saint Louis et de Blanche de Castille]
Paris. Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, Ms-1186 réserve, fol. 13v
Sacrifice of Isaac (1516-1518)
Getty Museum, Los Angeles
Satyrs offering a sacrifice to Pan (1510)
Pinacoteca di Brera, Milano
The Sacrifice of Isaac (1700-1750)
from: Bulgaria
Bruxelles, Musées royaux d'art et d'histoire / Koninklijke Musea voor Kunst en Geschiedenis
Anshuman finds the horse and the ashes of his sixty thousand uncles. In great distress, he looks for water with which to sprinkle the ashes. His maternal uncle Garuda advises him to return with the horse in order to complete the sacrifice. He also says that the pure water of the river Ganges should be sprinkled on the ashes of his uncles in order for them to attain heaven (1712)
from: Ramayana, Bala Kanda, Ms Add. 15295, fol. 117
British Library, London [from Udaipur]
P. Bernardus de Cisneros, P. Didacus de Orosco, P. Ioannes de Valle, P. Ludovicus de Alabes Hispani, Soc: Iesu, à Barbaris Americanis occisi fidei in nova Hispania Ao. 1616. 18 Novemb: (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. 470
John Carter Brown Library at Brown University
The sacrifice of the red heifer [1530]
from: Bible moralisée [Napoli]
Paris, BnF, Français 9561 f.93
The Offering of Noah (1640)
El Paso Museum of Art
Examination of Simon’s body after its discovery (1475)
from: Historie von Simon zu Trient [Bayerische StaatsBibliothek, 2 Inc.s.a. 62#Beibd], fol. 8v
Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Munich
The sacrifice of Elijah against the prophets of Baal (1653)
Gabinetto Disegni e Stampe, Fondo Corsini; cartella VOL.I
Brasilian Landscape with Manoah's Sacrifice (1648)
Museum Boymans van Beuningen, Rotterdam
(1528-1530)
Bologna, Chiesa di San Domenico (coro ligneo)
Ancient ritual sacrifice depicting a boar, a bull and a ram (suovetaurilia) being brought towards the altar at right, after a Roman relief from the Julio-Claudian era (1544-1577)
from: Series: Speculum Romanae Magnificentiae, published in Rome
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
The feast before the sacrifice (1712)
from: Ramayana, Bala Kanda, Ms Add. 15295, fol. 31
British Library, London [from Udaipur]
Sacrifice of a Lamb (14th)
from: Saint Augustin, La Cité de Dieu, traduite en français par Raoul de Presles, livres I-X
Paris, BnF, Français 20, fol. 253
Satrughna is wounded by Kusa and Lava during Rama's horse-sacrifice (1616)
from: Leaf from a dispersed manuscript of Razmnama
Harvard University, Fine Arts Library, SS_22349926
Rama accompanied by a golden statue of Sita performs the Ashwamehda Yajna. The sage Valmiki participates. They sit before a ritual Yajna fire. [1790]
from: folio from a dispersed Ramayana series
Sotheby's
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
Saint Gregory's Mass (1494)
from: Exterior of the Triptych of the Adoration of the Magi
Museo del Prado
Ritual Sacrifice of a Calf (1712)
from: Theophili Amilii... Erörterung der dunckelsten und schwersten Schrifft-Stellen im N. Testament, Franckfurt, Samuel Heyl, 1712
Wikimedia & google books
Gregory the Great celebrating Mass (1465-1480)
from: Book of Hours Spain, perhaps Burgos or Segovia
New York, The Morgan Library Library & Museum, MS M.854 fol. 225v
The martyrdom of Jan van Essen and Hendrik Voes (1563)
from: Foxe’s Book of Martyrs
Sacrifice of leopards was the prerogative of the king. Captured leopards were sacrified at the annual Igue ceremony. (16th-17th)
from: Benin City, Nigeria [Benin Brass Plaques]
Horse sacrifice (Asvamedha) (1712)
from: Ramayana, Bala Kanda, Ms Add. 15295, fol. 33
British Library, London [from Udaipur]
The Wicker Image (1676)
from: Aylett Sammes, Britannia Antiqua Illustrata, London, 1676, facing page 105
Persons bringing sacrifices to Hercules (1629)
from: Philostratus of Lemnos. Les images ou tableaux de platte peinture des deux Philostrates, sophistes grecs, et les Statues de Callistrate, tr. Blaise de Vigenère. Paris. 1629, p. 494.
The Warburg Institute, London
Candrahasa sacrifices himself cutting off pieces of his own flesh and putting them on the fire [1598]
from: Razmnāmah by Abhinanda, India (The last volume of the Persian translation of the Mahābhārata commissioned in 990 by Akbar)
London, British Library, Or 12076 folio: 90v
Samson destroys the Temple (XVI)
Venezia, Museo Correr
Noah offering a sacrifice to God after the Flood (1675)
from: Athanasius Kircher, Arca Noë, in tres libros digesta, Amsterdam 1683, p. 166
Pope Urban IV verifies the Eucharistic Miracle of Bolsena (1357-1364)
Cathedral of Orvieto
Relief of Samson destroying the Temple (XVI)
Venice, Scuola Grande di San Rocco, Sala Capitolare, portale dello scalone
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
(1549)
from: The Story of Samson, Hand-colored engravings (Netherlands)
The Metropolitan Art Museum, New York
Satī. The bride immolates herself on the funeral pyre (1657)
from: Isfahan, Iran
The Israel Museum, Jerusalem
A scene with fakirs and ritualistic animal sacrificeFaquires Bequedes Mahometans (1678-1686)
from: Nicolo Manucci, Histoire de l'Inde depuis Tamerlank jusquà Orangzeb [ms Libro Rosso, fol. 50v]
Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris
The Sacrifice of Isaac (1562)
from: Project on engraved sources of Spanish colonial art
Sotocoro, Temple of the Franciscan Ex-Convent of La Asunción de Nuestra Señora, Tecamachalco, Puebla, Mexico
Manner in which they Bury Themselves (1728)
from: Picart, B. Ceremonies et Coutumes Religieuses des Peuples Idolatres, tome II, Amsterdam, 1728
London, Wellcome Collection
Travel to Japan and Martyrdom of San Felipe de Jesus (1628-1697)
Cuernavaca Cathedral, south of Mexico City
Sacrifice of Jephthah [1350 - 1400]
from: Speculum humanae salvationis (Bologna) [Arsenal, Ms 593, fol. 7v]
Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris
The sacrificed horse is prepared (1712)
from: Ramayana, Bala Kanda, Ms Add. 15295, fol. 34
British Library, London [from Udaipur]
The Sacrifice of Polyxena (ca 1470-1475)
from: The Florentine Picture-Chronicle' page from the album (recto of 1889,0527.58): Pyrrhus (Neoptolemos) sacrificing Polyxena on the tomb of his father Achilles
British Museum, London
The Sacrifice of Isaac (detail of the Prado's Adoration of the Magi) (1494)
Madrid, Museo del Prado
Verwerfliche Opfer (1731)
from: Scheuchzer, Johann Jakob, Physica Sacra (Kupfer-Bibel), Augsburg and Ulm, Christian Ulrich Wagner, 1731-1735, vol. 2, p. 500, plate 282 (ZB III ZZ 55)Illustriert Lev 22,22-24
Zürich, ZB, Graphische Sammlung, Füssli J.M. Phys. Sac. ZEI 93 / emanuscripta
Antiochus IV Epiphanes has the altar of sacrifice desecrated (1465)
from: Bible moralisée (Bruges)
Koninklijke Bibliotheek, The Hague, KB, 76 E 7
Queen Kaikeyi reminds King Dasharatha about the sacrifices of King Bali and King Shivi, (c. 1710)
from: folio 39 from the Ayodhya Kanda (Book of Ayodhya) of a Ramayana. Northwestern India, Rajasthan, Rajput Kingdom of Mewar, Court of Amar Singh II
The Cleveland Museum of Art
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.
(1492)
from: Johannn Schönsperger, Speculum humanae salvationis, Augsburg, 1492 (Incunabula), fol. 119v
The Munich DigitiZation Center (MDZ)
Lycaon serves human flesh to Jupiter (1467)
from: Historia Troyana
Brussels, Bibliothèque royale de Belgique
The sacrifice of the Feast of Tabernacles (1746)
from: Histoire universelle, depuis le commencement du monde, jusqu’à présent, Volume 7, published Amsterdam: Arkstée et Merkus, 1742-1782.
Lowcountry Digital Library, College of Charleston Libraries
The sentinel in the employ of the Shah of Tabaristan prepares to sacrifice his son to the ghost of the Shah’s soul (Mughal India, court of Akbar) (1560)
from: from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Second Night
The Cleveland Museum of Art
The Sacrifice of Isaac (1650-1653)
Rotterdam, Museum Boijmans van Beuningen
De Loting over de Twee Bokken op den Verfoendag (1701)
from: Petrus Cunaeus, Willem Goeree (transl.), De Republyk Der Hebreen, of Gemeenebest der Joden, in drie boeken, Amsterdam, 1701, p. 433
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
Samson breaks down the pillars of the temple and kills the Philistines and himself. (1547)
Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbüttel
The Sacrifice of Isaac (17th-18th)
from: Project on engraved sources of Spanish colonial art
Private Collection, Lima, Perú
Elijah and Baal's priests (1545)
Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden
Joachim's sacrifice is rejected (1500-1527)
Albertina, Vienna
The Sacrifice of Isaac (1491)
from: Stephan Fridolin, Der Schatzbehalter, Nuremberg, Koberger, November 18, 1491, fol. 32v
British Museum, London
The tomb of the weroans – An Algonquian burial house showing bodies on a raised platform and a priest squatting by a fire beneath the platform. (1590)
from: Thomas Hariot, Wunderbarliche, doch warhafftige Erklärung, von der Gelegenheit vnd Sitten der Wilden in Virginia, Franckfort am Mayn, Wechel-De Bry, 1590, plate 22
Handprints of women who committed sati
Wall of the Junagarh Fort (Bikaner, Rajasthan, India)
Abrahams Dankopfer (1653)
Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum
Immolation of a Hindoo Widow (1814)
from: Lester. The Gallery of Nature and Art, 1814
London, Wellcome Collection
The Sacrifice of Elijah (1543)
from: Historiarum Veteris Testamenti icones ad vivum expressae. Lyon, Subscuto coloniensis, apud Ioannem & Franciscum Frellonios, frates, 1543
Louvre, Paris
[The adoration of the Lamb (?)] (1491)
from: Stephan Fridolin, Der Schatzbehalter, Nuremberg, Koberger, November 18, 1491, fol. 27v
The British Museum, London