Bolognese School, Hagar, Ishmael, and the Angel

18th century
Norman Palace, Palermo, Sicily

In Genesis 21:9-19 Sarah makes Abraham exile the bondwoman Hagar and her son Ishmael. Hagar wanders in the wilderness with the boy and eventually she runs out of water. As she weeps, God sends an angel and "opened her eyes, and she saw a spring of water." According to Augustine (Glossa Ordinaria, I, 259), the spring represents Christ, who proclaimed, "Whoever thirsts, let him come to me and drink" (John 7:37).

In the painting the angel holds Hagar's empty flask and points toward the spring while looking into her eyes. The eyes are beginning to open, reflecting what God is doing for her physically and, in Augustine's interpretation, what he is doing for all who "leave sin behind and turn to Christ."

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Photographed at the Norman Palace by Claire Stracke, shared under Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license.