Hand-painted in oil
About this Artwork
One, where the story gives three
The visitation at Mamre is a three-figure episode: three men arrive, Abraham receives them, and a promise is delivered. This title records one angel, and Sara rather than Abraham alone as the other party. That is a real difference in the record, not a rounding of it. Eight titles in this catalogue name Abraham, and the rest of them count to three; this is the entry where the host is singular.
What the record holds
The catalogue dates the work to 1520 and gives Jan Provoost, filed as Flemish and Northern Renaissance. It measures 71 x 58 cm, an upright panel at domestic rather than altar scale. The measured colour family is red. The recorded location is the Louvre in Paris — the collection holding more works in this catalogue than any other named institution, with eleven entries.
Why the number matters to rank
Where the visitors are three, the tradition has always argued about what they are: three angels, or one presence attended by two. Where there is one, that argument disappears and a plain messenger remains. Neither reading is settled here and this page does not settle it. What the catalogue can say is that the count in the title is the thing the whole interpretive question turns on, and that this entry's count is one.
Sources
3 references- Provoost, Jan — Getty ULAN
South Netherlandish painter, ca. 1465-1529
- Jan Provoost — Wikipedia
Jan Provoost, or Jean Provost, or Jan Provost (1462/65 – January 1529) was a painter born in Mons. Provost was a prolific master who left his early workshop in Valenciennes to run two workshops, one in Bruges, where he was made a burgher in
- Jan Provoost - Abraham, Sarah, and the Angel - WGA18441 — Wikimedia Commons
High-resolution image of the work, hosted on Wikimedia Commons.
