God the Father is a title given to God in modern monotheist religions, such as Christianity, Judaism and Bahá'í, in part because he is viewed as having an active interest in human affairs, in the way that a father would take an interest in his children who are dependent on him.
In Judaism, God is described as father as he is said to be the creator, life-giver, law-giver, and protector. However, in Judaism the use of the Father title is generally a metaphor and is one of many titles by which Jews speak of and to God.
Since the second century, Christian creeds included affirmation of belief in "God the Father (Almighty)", primarily as his capacity as "Father and creator of the universe". Yet, in Christianity the concept of God as the father of Jesus is distinct from the concept of God as the Creator and father of all people, as indicated in the Apostle's Creed where the expression of belief in the "Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth" is immediately, but separately followed by in "Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord", thus expressing both senses of fatherhood.
The Islamic view of God sees God as the unique creator of the universe and as the life-giver, but does not accept the term "father" in reference to God, as well as in regard to his relationship to the prophet Isa, i.e. Jesus in Islam.
For about a thousand years, in obedience to interpretations of specific Bible passages, pictorial representations of God the Father in Western art had been avoided by Christian painters. At first only the Hand of God, often emerging from a cloud, was portrayed. Gradually, portrayals of the head and later the whole figure were depicted, and by the time of the Renaissance artistic representations of God the Father were freely used in the Western Church.