Sacrifice of Isaac

The Israeli sculptor Menashe Kadishman (1932–2015) worked as a shepherd on Kibbutz Ma’ayan Baruch between 1950 and 1953. This experience had a lasting impact on his later work, and figured prominently in an installation of a flock of colored live sheep he presented at the Venice Biennale in 1978. Sheep became a frequent subject of his colorful expressionistic paintings and by the 1980s of his sculpture, too, such as The Sacrifice of Isaac (1985). This monumental work in Corten steel was created after war broke out between Israel and Lebanon in October 1982 when Kadishman’s own son was a soldier. The sacrifice of Isaac was a metaphor for the sacrifices made on the battlefield. The section on the left depicts two grieving women, mothers who have lost their sons. Isaac is depicted as a round head on the ground. The ram looms over the scene in a threatening manner precluding the possibility of redemption.