# Hagar in the Desert [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [PITTONI, Giambattista]() - Date: 1701-1750 - Technique: Oil on canvas ## Commentary Hagar, the Egyptian hand maiden of Sarah was the mother of Ishmael, Abraham's first son. When Isaac, Sarah's son, was born Ishmael mocked his younger brother so that Sarah asked Abraham to banish him, together with his mother. Abraham provided them with bread and a bottle of water and sent them off into the desert of Beersheba. When the water was spent Hagar put Ishmael under a bush to die and then sat some way off, weeping. But an angel appeared, by tradition the archangel Michael, and disclosed a well of water near by, so they were both saved. Two scenes, the banishment, and the appearance of the angel are common in 17th century Italian and Dutch painting. ## Related artworks - [Annunciation]() - [David and Bathsheba]() - [Death of Sophonisba]() - [Sacrifice of Isaac]() - [St Elizabeth Distributing Alms]() - [St Roch]() - [Sts Jerome and Peter of Alcantara]() - [The Death of Joseph]() - [The Penitent Magdalene]() - [The Rest on the Flight into Egypt]() - [The Sacrifice of Polyxena]() - [The Torture of St Thomas]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()