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.