Copy after Raphael's Vatican Loggia Fresco : Abraham sacrificing Isaac

One of a series of eight drawings copying the now barely visible monochrome frescoes on the Vatican Loggias or Long Gallery. These were painted by Raphael's pupils and his workshop after his designs. The Gallery is divided up into 13 square vaults, with four frescoes within each vault. It was commissioned by a member of the Medici family, Pope Leo X, whose biography in English was first written by William Roscoe, one of the owners of this drawing. The Walker's drawings are in the same arrangement as Bartoli's engravings of the frescoes. WAG 1995.226 is a copy of the frieze on the 4th bay of the Loggia. It depicts the Old Testament scene in which God, in order to test Abraham's faith, commands him to sacrifice his son Isaac and then sends an angel to prevent the blow being struck (Genesis chapter 22 verses 1-19).