Abraham and the Three Angels. Gustave Doré, 19th century.
Gustave Doré engraved this encounter between Abraham and the three divine visitors in the mid 19th century — drawn, like all great artists, to the ambiguity at the heart of the story. Are these men, or angels, or something beyond either? Amnon Moalem’s version works in three dimensions, in carved wood and cast-epoxy with selective gold cladding, at a scale of nearly two meters square. The gold leaf traces the points of divine contact in the composition — illuminating what the text does not fully reveal.
