Fan - Abraham's offering

In the narrow, gold-framed central field is the Abraham's Sacrifice scene on either side of it, inside a cross-shaped outer frame, is a still life with fruit set in an oval. The three picture-fields are bordered and linked together by festoons of flowers in gold, blue and red. The scene, set in a broad landscape, depicts the Angel of the Lord appearing to Abraham at the moment he is about to sacrifice his son, Isaac, and the prevention of the sacrifice (Gen. 22, 10-22). On the verso is a bouquet of flowers, and a narrow leaf motif running along the verso's edge. The leaf is graceful, even a little naive, and its sure painterliness is in sharp contrast to the clumsy patterns on the chased sticks. Pieces akin to this one can be found at the Stadtmuseum, Munich, in an English private collection and at the Nederlands Kostuummuseum, The Hague.The unusual nature of the depiction-an Old Testament scene on a frivolous utility article-suggests a Netherlands origin, according to the above works.