John Skippe was better known as a collector than as an artist, and he is generally considered an amateur with regard to both his woodcuts and his later paintings (Burch 78). However, he did introduce an old Italian tradition into the world of Romantic Britain, creating this particular woodcut in the style of Antonio Maria Zanetti. His work shows how Romantic art depended on a long history of sources—of Renaissance artists, their Medieval predecessors, and the ancient authors of the Bible from whom they drew inspiration. Furthermore, this work demonstrates the Romantic interest in the existence of miracles, the question of which emerged out of the debates of such Enlightenment thinkers as Hume. Artists would often look back to a time when miracles were, if not commonplace, at least unchallenged in their reality. As visual technology progressed and viewers' ability to deduce the mechanisms behind spectacles decreased, audiences may have looked back to an older, less rational way of thinking in order to augment the pleasurable suspension of their disbelief (McCalman 187-88).

This woodcut, depicting Abraham's encounter with the three angels, dwells on divine benevolence and Abraham's humility. More generally, the image attests to the Romantic interest in narratives that posited miracles and mythical beings as existing in the real world. Abraham kneels on a flat plain before three winged angels who stand conversing among themselves. Some hills and trees stand in the distance, and the sky is furrowed with thick, wavy lines that suggest clouds and blowing wind.