Editor: Chiara Petrolini – Image Gallery
Martyrdom of Fray Francisco Lopez who stands before a group of native Americans who have shot him and six other Franciscans with arrows. The other Franciscans are Juan de Padilla, Antonio de Cuellar, Alois de Villa[lobos], Pedro Burgos, Francisco Donzelis, and Juan Serrano (1625)
from: Marianus, de Orscelar, Gloriosus Franciscus rediuiuus siue Chronica observantae strictioris ... eiusdemque per Christianos orbes, non solùm, sed & Americam, Peru, ... Indos Orientis, Ingolstadt, Wilhelmi Ederi, 1625, p. 330
John Carter Brown Library at Brown University
Satī, from a Sūz u Gudāz manuscript. The union of the couple on the pyre (1657)
from: Sūz u Gudāz ms, Iran, Walters Manuscript W. 649, fol. 19b (Burning and Melting)
The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, Maryland
A mountain city with multistoried hill architecture. Outside the gates on the right is a Saivite shrine with a lingum covered by floral offerings to which a goat is led, probably for sacrifice. (17th)
from: Unidentified Hindu chronicle of a King
Metropolitan Museum, New York
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°.
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 Jesuit Diego Alfaro, killed in the battle of Caazapá-guazú in which he fought alongside the Guaraní Indians against the Brazilian bandeirantes (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
The Martyrdom of Zakarîyâ (Zacharias), the father of John the Baptist, who is killed when the tree in which he is hiding is sawn in two (c. 1580)
from: Nīsābūrī, Abū Isḥāq Ibrāhīm ibn Manṣūr, Qisas al-Anbiyâ [Qazvin?]
The New York Public Library, Spencer Coll. Persian MS. 46, fol. 144
Abrahams Dankopfer (1653)
Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum
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)
Sacrifce of Isaac [1550 - 1599]
from: Gabinetto Disegni e Stampe, Fondo Corsini; volume 34I1
Istituto Centrale per la Grafica
The Offering of Noah (1640)
El Paso Museum of Art
Joachim's sacrifice is rejected (1500-1527)
Albertina, Vienna
Antiochus IV Epiphanes has the altar of sacrifice desecrated (1465)
from: Bible moralisée (Bruges)
Koninklijke Bibliotheek, The Hague, KB, 76 E 7
The sacrifice of Cain and Abel (1601)
from: Engraved illustration from Louis Richeome, Les tableaux sacrez (Paris, Sonnius: 1601), plate 2, pag. 48
Culte du Démon (The Cult of the Demon), from Les Sacrifices (The Sacrifices) (1625-1627)
from: http://ark.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb42582956v
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
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
Musei Borgiani Velitris. Tab III pictura indica autographa exhibens sacrificium Túkam (1791)
from: Paulinus a S. Bartholomaeo, Systema Brahmanicum liturgicum, mythologicum, civile, Rome 1791
New York Public Library
The Sacrifice of Isaac (sec. XIII-XIV)
Torri in Sabina, S. Maria in Vescovio
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
Temple Worship [1471]
from: Mishneh Torah, Opening panel to Sefer Avodah (Italy or Spain)
New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Samson destroys the temple (15th)
from: Boccaccio, De casibus virorum illustrium
Paris, BnF, Ms Français 233 fol. 28
Le sacrifice humain allait s'accomplir (1857)
BnF, Gallica
Scene of a Sati, with a woman throwing herself into the flames amid a crowd playing trumpets. Above, a winged devil holds the banner with the book's title and the torch with which he lights the ritual fire. (1670)
from: Abraham Rogerius, Le Théâtre de l’idolatrie ou la porte ouverte, Amsterdam, Jean Schipper, 1670, title page
Ritualistic hanging from a carriage during the procession, as part of ceremonies in honor of Ganga. Numerous goats were sacrificed during this event (1670)
from: Abraham Rogerius, Le Théâtre de l’idolatrie ou la porte ouverte, Amsterdam, Jean Schipper, 1670, p. 246
Native Americans [?] sacrifice children on an altar. Includes priests with knives who place the infants on a pyre. (1662)
from: Schultze, Gottfried, De nieuwe bereysde wereldt, Iohannes Tongerloo, La Hague, 1662, frontespiece
The John Carter Brown Library
Satī (17th)
from: Manuscript, Iran
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, The Norma Jean Calderwood Collection of Islamic Art
Two humans are sacrificed on this picture. One is drowned in a holy spring and one is burned. The man with a sword symbolizes probably another way of sacrificing of humans. To the right worshipping people. (1555)
from: Olaus Magnus, Historia de gentibus septentrionalibus, Roma,Giovanni M. Viotto, 1555 (Book 3, Ch. 7, On the Geats’ Worship and Sacrifice, De sacrisi, et sacrificiis Gothorum).
The Angel Departing from Manoah and His Wife (Victima per Manuen, domino mactatur optima: Vxor) (1584)
from: The Story of Samson, Hand-colored engravings (Netherlands)
Harvard Art Museum
Samson tears down the temple of the Philistines (1551-1575)
Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbüttel
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
Le Culte de Dieu (The Worship of God), from Les Sacrifices (The Sacrifices) (1625-1627)
from: http://ark.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb42582956v
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
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
Noah, surrounded by animals, making a sacrifice to God after the Great Flood (1550-1572)
from: France
British Museum
Cain killing Abel, besides Cain and Abel standing, holding their sacrifices [1420]
from: Speculum humanae salvationis, Prague, Národní Muzeum, III.B.10, fol. 22r
Národní Muzeum, Prague
The sacrifice of Isaac (Bild des Stark-Gläubigen) (1720)
from: Winterthur
Universitätsbibliothek Zürich
Preparation for the Sacrifice (1764)
The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City
Narasimha Avatar of Vishn (1760)
from: Illustrated folio from a Bhagavata Purana (Ancient Stories of the Lord). Nurpur Fort, Nurpur, Himachal Pradesh, India
Nasli and Alice Heeramaneck Collection, Museum Associates Purchase, LACMA (M.82.42.8)
Two native American men throw the body of Jesuit into a burning building. Antoine Daniel, a French Jesuit missionary, was saying mass at the Huron settlement of Saint Joseph or Tennaostaiaë, when Iroquois Indians attacked the settlement. (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. 532
John Carter Brown Library at Brown University
Giant snake eats a lion while a man is attacked by beasts with sharp teeth. Includes the bodies of other victims or sacrifices. Description of a temple in the Yucatan discovered by Francisco Fernandez de Córdoba and Cristobal Morantes. The temple is described as being a theater of marble with huge figures carved on the top. People were daily executed within the bars and their bodies thrown down on the ground below (1671)
from: Arnoldus Montanus, De Nieuwe en Onbekende Weereld, Amsterdam, Jacob Meurs, 1671, p. 73
John Carter Brown Library
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 offering of the Jews
Rotterdam, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen
Samson breaking the pillars of the house of the Philistines (1535)
from: Chronica, Beschreybung und gemeyne anzeyge, Vonn aller Wellt herkommen....', Frankfurt: Christian Egenolph, 1535
The British Museum, London
The sacrifice of the black Bull (1584)
Palazzo Fava, Bologna
The Sacrifice of Isaac (Armenian Gospel Book) (1386)
from: Lake Van, Turkey
Getty Museum, Armenian Ms. Ludwig II 6 (83.MB.70), fol. 5v
(1663)
from: L'Enea vagante pitture dei Caracci (from the frescos in Bologna, Palazzo Fava)
Accademia dei Lincei, Fondo Corsini, Roma
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
The Sacrifice of Isaac (1625)
from: Iconum Biblicarum, Part I [= Icones Biblicae], p. 45
The sacrifice of Elijah on Mount Carmel [1531]
Museo di Capodimonte, Napoli
The sacrifice to Iphigenia (1553)
Dresden, Kupferstich-Kabinett
Aeneas sacrifices at the tomb of Anchises, a giant snake winds around the altar (1688)
from: Peplus virtutum Romanarum in Aenea Virgiliano eiusque rebus fortiter gestis, ad maiorem antiquitatis et rerum lucem, communi iuventutis sacratae bono, aere renitens) (Nuremburg: J.L. Buggel, 1688), pl. 18.
Münchener DigitalisierungsZentrum
Ignatius Fialho, missionary in the Maghul empire, surrounded by Muslims woth swords (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. 342
Scene of Animal Sacrifice (1668)
from: Der gantzen Welt Religionen oder Beschreibung aller Gottes- und Götzendienste wie auch Ketzereyen in Asia, Africa, America und Europa, Amsterdam, Joach. Nosch, 1668
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
The sacrifice of Isaac [1470]
from: Marseille, Bibliothèque municipale, ms 89, fol. 53r
Bibliothèque municipale, Marseille
Handprints left by the wives of the maharaja before the Sati [1843]
Mehrangarh Fort, Rajasthan, India
Sacrifice of Isaac [1585 - 1650]
Louvre, Paris
The Sacrifice of Isaac (1526-1532)
Museo Nacional de Escultura, Valladolid
The Sacrifice of Abraham (1612-1613)
The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City
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
The Circumcision of Christ (1600-1610)
from: Netherland. Series: The early life of Christ
British Museum, London
(1528-1530)
Bologna, Chiesa di San Domenico (coro ligneo)
The Sacrifice of Isaac
Basilica di San Vitale, Ravenna
Aeneas Offers Sacrifice to the Gods of the Lower World (1530-1540)
from: Vergil, Aeneid, edited by Sebastian Brant and printed by Johann Grüninge (Limoges, France)
Walters Art Museum, Baltimore
Nine female deities (?) performing a yagna, a fire sacrifice (1800-1900)
London, Wellcome Collection
Human Sacrifice to Vitzilipuztli (1745)
from: Prévost, Antoine François, Histoire générale des voyages, ou Nouvelle collection de toutes les relations de voyages par mer et par terre qui ont été publiées jusqu'à présent dans les différentes langues, Paris, Didot, 1754, vol. 12, p. after 544
Cimetierre des Sacrifices (Cemetery of Sacrifices) (1745)
from: Prévost, Antoine François, Histoire générale des voyages, ou Nouvelle collection de toutes les relations de voyages par mer et par terre qui ont été publiées jusqu'à présent dans les différentes langues, Paris, Didot, 1754, vol. 12, p. after 544
Emperor Jahangir and Prince Khurram at the gathering for the Feast of the Sacrifice (1615-1625)
from: India
Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Museum für Islamische Kunst
‘Duo fratres coadjutores.’ Two anonymous Jesuit co-adjutores, one shown struck by arrows, the other beaten by a club in Brazil (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. 441
John Carter Brown Library at Brown University
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
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
Episodi della vita di Lorenzino da Marostica (1520-40)
Trento, Castello del Buonconsiglio
The Sacrifice of Elijah (1543)
from: Historiarum Veteris Testamenti icones ad vivum expressae. Lyon, Subscuto coloniensis, apud Ioannem & Franciscum Frellonios, frates, 1543
Louvre, Paris
Landscape with Abraham about to sacrifice Isaac in left foreground, (1605-1652)
The British Museum, London
Satī. Gentile women of the caste of the cattle drivers, who is buried alive with her husband after he had died [1540]
Codice Casanatense, Biblioteca Casanatense, ms. 1889, fol. 64r, Rome
Sacrifice of Joachim (1303-1305)
Cappella degli Scrovegni, Padova
Noah offering a sacrifice to God after the Flood (1675)
from: Athanasius Kircher, Arca Noë, in tres libros digesta, Amsterdam 1683, p. 166
Religious practices of the native Americans of Peru. Priests sacrifice animals on a bonfire, throw rocks with serpents or snakes and animals painted on them, and eviscerate animals. (1671)
from: Arnoldus Montanus, De Nieuwe en Onbekende Weereld, Amsterdam, Jacob Meurs, 1671, p. 309
John Carter Brown Library
Scene of Jewish offering (1470)
Museum Boymans-van Beuningen, Rotterdam, Netherlands
The Sacrifice of Isaac
from: Ancient mosaic pavement from the 6th century, Beit Alfa Synagogue
Beit Alfa Synagogue, Beit She'an (near to), Israel
Japanese mendicants, lepers, muck-eaters, acts of self-immolation, the bathing of “Brahmins and fakirs,” Mexican human sacrifice and deities, and a Turkish dervish. (1682)
from: Simon de Vries (ca. 1580–1629), Curieuse Aenmerckingen der byzondereste Oost en West Indische… dingen (Curious Remarks on the most exceptional East and West Indian… matters), vol. 3 (Utrecht: Johannes Ribbius, 1682)
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam