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In Caravaggio’s piece, as was common in representations of the story in the period, we see the father in a moment of religious fanaticism on the verge of slitting his sons throat. An angel intervenes. Abraham has proven his love for God, the boy lives.

 

Four hundred years later, Dominic’s six layer stencil print with paint and chalk on canvass appropriates Caravaggio’s composition and brings the allegory to a contemporary setting.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the 2004 painting one observes a number of differences in the presentation of the characters. No longer dressed in cloaks, Abraham is articulated as a businessman, alluding to his participation in the culture of fundamentalist economic fetishism defining contemporary western societies. God, it seems, has been replaced by the dollar and the new gods servants are businessmen, profiteers. Isaac too has changed. No longer young and seeminlgy innocent, Allen’s isaac is a mature, developed early adult. His face is worn and while straining under the force of his fathers arm, he appears calmer, more accustomed to such pressure. Crucially we notice that allen has replaced the fathers weapon and it seems that he does not intend to slay his son with a knife, but force a tie around his neck, as if to forcibly induct the boy into the system of money making.

 

The scene is played out against the backdrop of inner city commission flats, the contemporary solution to housing requirements - one championed by the economists for its cost effectivity. The images below reveal Dominic’s process of developing the composition.