Kárpáti Zoltán - Liptay Éva - Varga Ágota szerk.: A Szépművészeti Múzeum közleményei 101. (Budapest, 2004)

JÚLIA TÁTRAI: The Return of Barent Fabritius's Sacrifice of Manoah to Hungary

49. Vincent van Gogh, Angel, whereabouts unknown picture: "So Manoah took the kid with the grain offering, and offered it on the rock to the Lord, to him who works wonders. When the flame went up toward heaven from the altar, the angel of the Lord ascended in the flame of the altar while Manoah and his wife looked on; and they fell on their faces to the ground."

22 The subject of Manoah's sacrifice was very popular in seventeenth century Dutch art, especially in the circle of masters belonging to the Rembrandt school. Fritz Saxl, in his study on the Dresden Manoah, then attributed to Rembrandt, provides numerous examples, including the panel from the Gerhardt Collection.

23 Obviously, he must not have known about the history of the painting, because he mentions the work as a rare example of the subject-matter depicted without the angel.

24 Like Hofstede de Groot and Gábor Térey, Saxl connects it to the Dresden painting: "In Fabritius's picture the woman is a free variation of the corresponding figure in the Dresden picture which therefore Fabritius must have known."

25 Although the support and the size of the two works differ, 22 The Book of Judges 13:19-20. 23 F. Saxl, Rembrandt's Sacrifice of Manoah, Studies of the Warburg Institute 9, London 1939, 7, 10, n. 2. 24 "In the picture attributed to Barent Fabritius, one might even feel that Manoah and his wife are shown in a state when, after the messenger has disappeared, they begin to recognise their divine mission." (Ibid., 13) With this, he wished to prove that originally the Dresden picture did not have an angel figure. 25 Saxl 1939 (n. 23), 10.