Editor: Chiara Petrolini – Image Gallery
The Sacrifice of Abraham [1550-1600]
Louvre, Paris
Landscape with Abraham about to sacrifice Isaac in left foreground, (1605-1652)
The British Museum, London
Valmiki instructs Kusha and Lava in the recitation of the "Ramayana" before the occasion of a sacrifice in Rama's palace (1597-1605)
from: The Ramayana (Tales of Rama; The Freer Ramayana), Volume 2
National Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.
Killing of the Passover Lamb, putting blood on the lintel and the door-posts (1335-1340)
from: Rylands Sephardi Haggadah, Passover Haggadah (Catalonia, Spain)
Manchester, The John Rylands Library, Hebrew MS 6, fol. 19v
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
Scenes of sacrifice (1685)
from: Title page of Herman Witsius, De oeconomia foderum Dei cum hominibus, Leeuwarden, 1685
The clothing of the Jewish priests (1697)
from: Johannes Braun: Bigdê kohanîm. Id Est Vestitus Sacerdotum Hebraeorum, 2 Bde., Amsterdam: Abraham van Someren, 1697-1698
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
The Sacrifice of Isaac (1625)
from: Iconum Biblicarum, Part I [= Icones Biblicae], p. 45
Lycaon serves human flesh to Jupiter (1467)
from: Historia Troyana
Brussels, Bibliothèque royale de Belgique
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
Tumi (knife) with a talon (1400-1530)
New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Temple Worship [1471]
from: Mishneh Torah, Opening panel to Sefer Avodah (Italy or Spain)
New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Sacrifices of Abel, Abraham and Melchizedek
Sant'Apollinare in Classe, Ravenna
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
Angel announcing the Birth of Samson, from the Story of Samson (1560–80)
from: France
New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art
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
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
Sacrificing the Sabine cow (1470-1480)
from: Valerius Maximus, Facta et dicta memorabilia, trad. Simon de Hesdin et Nicolas de Gonesse (Bruges)
Paris, BnF, Français 289 f.329v
The Sacrifice of Isaac (1560)
Royal Library of Belgium
[The adoration of the Lamb (?)] (1491)
from: Stephan Fridolin, Der Schatzbehalter, Nuremberg, Koberger, November 18, 1491, fol. 27v
The British Museum, London
Rāma sends out his entire army, headed by Lakṣmaṇa and Vibhīṣaṇa, to fight Indrajit at the Nikumbhilā grove, where he is performing more magical sacrifices. Indrajit is sacrificing to the fire again with a black goat, while around him a furious battle is raging between Lakṣmaṇa and his allies and the other demons. Vibhīṣaṇa has advised Rāma to send Lakṣmaṇa to finish off Indrajit at the place where he is performing his magical arts, before he can make himself even more powerful. Inscribed above Indrajit: Iṃdrajit. (ca 1653)
from: Ramayana [ms Add. 15297(1), fol. 115]
British Library, London [from Udaipur]
The Scapegoat Being Sent out into the Wilderness Where Five Wild Beasts Are Waiting to Devour It, and Secondly the Sacrifice of an Ox (1491)
from: Stephan Fridolin, Der Schatzbehalter, Nuremberg, Koberger, November 18, 1491, fol. 23v
Boston, Harvard Art Museums / Fogg Museum, Gift of Philip Hofer
The Sacrifice of Isaac (1526-1532)
Museo Nacional de Escultura, Valladolid
The Sacrifice of Abel (1530-1535)
Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Kupferstichkabinett
Abraham leading his son Isaac to sacrifice [1500-1550]
Louvre, Paris
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
The Sacrifice of Isaac (1421)
from: Giotto's Campanile, Florence
Museo dell'Opera del Duomo, Firenze
The Sacrifice of Isaac (1491)
from: Stephan Fridolin, Der Schatzbehalter, Nuremberg, Koberger, November 18, 1491, fol. 32v
British Museum, London
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
This mandala is devoted to the solar deity Surya. In the lower register a Vajracharya priest at left performs a fire sacrifice and the repentant donor at center undergoing some form of exorcism accompanied by musicians while his family observes. [1379]
from: Nepal, Kathmandu Valley (Kitaharasa Period: Early Malla period Date)
New York, The Metropolitan Museum of 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).
Le sacrifice humain allait s'accomplir (1857)
BnF, Gallica
The Sacrifice of Isaac (detail of the Trittico degli Uffizi) (1461)
Firenze, Gallerie degli Uffizi
King Sagara performs a sacrifice (1712)
from: Ramayana, Bala Kanda
British Library, Add. 15295, f.105
Sacrifice of Noah (1649)
from: Gabinetto Disegni e Stampe, Fondo Nazionale; Pio; volume 8F.PIO
Istituto Centrale per la Grafica
The Sacrifice of Isaac
Christie's, London
The sacrifice of Abraham (1655)
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
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
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 Polyxena (1625)
Roma, Musei Capitolini
Samson breaking the pillars of the house of the Philistines [1530-1549]
Bologna, Chiesa di San Domenico (coro ligneo)
Sacrifice of Josiah (1418-1420)
from: Bible historiale complétée [Royal MS 19 D VI]
British Library, London
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
Samson destroys the temple (15th)
from: Boccaccio, De casibus virorum illustrium
Paris, BnF, Ms Français 233 fol. 28
(1549)
from: The Story of Samson, Hand-colored engravings (Netherlands)
The Metropolitan Art Museum, New York
The Sacrifice of Isaac (17th)
from: Project on engraved sources of Spanish colonial art
Iglesia de San Martín, Potosí, Bolivia
(1729)
Philadelphia Museum of Art
The martyrdom of Michael Nacascima by scalding in boiling water in Japan on December 25, 1628 (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. 333
Burnt offerings in the Temple of Jerusalem from within the Court of the Levites (1660)
from: plate from the 'Restoration' Bible 2 vols., published by John Ogilby, Cambridge, 1660
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Sacrifice in Egypt (1776 -1825)
Herzog August Bibliothek
The Sacrifice of Noah, after the Deluge (1551-1660)
Herzog August Bibliothek, Wolfenbüttel
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
A Pagan Sacrifice (1526)
National Gallery, London
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
Tripod vessel with baby jaguar sacrifice scene (650–750)
Princeton University Art Museum
Simon of Trent’s corpse (“victima”) (1475)
from: Historie von Simon zu Trient [Bayerische StaatsBibliothek, 2 Inc.s.a. 62#Beibd], fol. 5v
Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Munich
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
Manoah and his wife sacrificing [1430]
from: Psalterium romanum [Mantova]
Paris, BnF, Ms Latin 772, fol. 8
The Circumcision of Christ (1600-1610)
from: Netherland. Series: The early life of Christ
British Museum, London
The Adoration of the Lamb (1432)
from: The Ghent Altarpiece (or the Adoration of the Mystic Lamb), St Bavo's Cathedral, Ghent, Belgium
St Bavo's Cathedral, Ghent, Belgium
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
Offering of the first-born in the Temple (1491)
from: Stephan Fridolin, Der Schatzbehalter, Nuremberg, Koberger, November 18, 1491, fol. 26r
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
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
Samson's mother seated at centre, her hands folded in her lap, Manoah and his wife at an altar with an angel in flames in background (1590-1595)
from: Mater Sampsonis, from Icones Illustrium Feminarum Veteris Testamenti
The British Museum, London
Pesah dorot (from the Birds’ Head Haggadah) (1300)
from: Birds’ Head Haggadah (Germany)
Israel Museum in Jerusalem
Beasts and the birds sacrificed (1491)
from: Stephan Fridolin, Der Schatzbehalter, Nur,emberg, Koberger, November 18, 1491, fol. 18r
British Museum, London
Sacrificial Knife (1634)
from: Liceti, Fortunio, Pyronarcha, sive, De fulminum natura deque febrium origine, Crivellarum, Padua, 1634, p. 123
Immolation of a Hindoo Widow (1814)
from: Lester. The Gallery of Nature and Art, 1814
London, Wellcome Collection
Cain killing Abel, besides Cain and Abel sacrificing (15th)
from: Speculum humanae salvationis Stiftsbibliothek - Cod. 166, fol. 21r
Neustift bei Brixen (Novacella), Stiftsbibliothek
Dieu ordonnant à Satan d'éprouver Job - Job sacrifiant (1470-1480)
from: Jean Mansel (1400?-1473?) : La fleur des hystoires
Paris, Bibliothèque Mazarine, Ms 1562, fol. 118
Sacrifice of Isaac (1516-1518)
Getty Museum, Los Angeles
The Sacrifice of Isaac (Persia, Shiraz, Timurid period) (1410-1411)
from: Miniature from the Anthology of Sultan Iskandar (Persia, Shiraz)
Gulbenkian Museum, Lisbon
Suovetaurilia, the sacrifice of a pig (sus), a sheep (ovis) and a bull (taurus) (1585-1588)
Rotterdam, Museum Boijmans van Beuningen
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 Elijah (1519-1524)
Siena Cathedral
Scene of a sacrifice [1545]
Museo Capodimonte, Napoli
The Sacrifice of Isaac (1309)
from: Brussels Pentateuch, Brussels, 1309
(Hamburg, Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek, Codex Levy 19, f. 34v
The Sacrifice of Isaac (1480-1490)
from: Vita Christi [Getty Museum, Ms. 101, fol. 11, England]
Getty Museum, Los Angeles
Jewish sacrificing children to demons (IXth Century)
from: Psalterium, Constantinople / Istanbul
Paris, BnF, Grec. 20, fol. 18
The Sacrifice of Isaac (1597)
Augsburg, Dom
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
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)
