Antonio Balestra, The Prophet Isaiah

18th century
Castelvecchio Museum, Verona, Italy

The tongs with the hot coal refer to Isaiah 6:6-7, "And one of the seraphims flew to me, and in his hand was a live coal, which he had taken with the tongs off the altar. And he touched my mouth, and said: Behold this hath touched thy lips, and thy iniquities shall be taken away, and thy sin shall be cleansed."

Usually Isaiah is represented as an old man with white hair and beard, but here the artist has left him with hair that is still mostly dark.

Read more about images of Isaiah.

Source: Bridgeman Art Library via this page at Wikimedia Commons.