This dramatic scene is inspired by a well-known episode in the Book of Genesis, when God tests Abraham’s faith by ordering him to sacrifice Isaac, his only son. In Piazzetta’s painting, Abraham picks up a knife, just visible in his clenched hand, and stares wide-eyed towards heaven as if steeling himself to accept God’s command. An angel rushes towards Abraham, placing a hand on his shoulder in an attempt to stop him carrying out this act. Isaac is placed beneath them, his body limp as he cowers in fear.

Piazzetta revisited this subject many times. This work, painted in around 1735, is the latest version, probably started shortly before the artist’s death. It may have been intended as a large altarpiece – it measures around 2 metres high – but we don't know who commissioned the work. The picture was left unfinished: the only completed area is Abraham’s head, which is damaged, although his red coat and the archangel’s yellow vestment, feathery wings and torso are faintly painted in. Other areas are mere outlines or made up of layers of under paint, like the body of Isaac, and there are many losses of original paint across the composition.

A considerable amount of overpaint was added by Roger Fry – the English painter and art critic, and a member of the influential circle of intellectuals known as the Bloomsbury Group – while the picture was in his collection at the turn of the twentieth century.