17th Century
Except otherwise stated, all results include the premium.
See also : Ancient painting Ancient sculpture Rubens Rembrandt Groups Children Christianity China Chinese art Ming Islam Persia Safavid carpets Textiles
See also : Ancient painting Ancient sculpture Rubens Rembrandt Groups Children Christianity China Chinese art Ming Islam Persia Safavid carpets Textiles
Safavid Carpet ex Senator Clark
2013 SOLD for $ 34M by Sotheby's
The extreme refinement of Persian carpets reached its peak under the Safavid dynasty. Well known by the connoisseurs, the carpet of Senator Clark had already been described for nearly a century as a masterpiece of Persian textile art. It was exhibited after the death of its owner in 1925 in a museum that de-accessioned it. It was sold for $ 34M from a lower estimate of $ 5M by Sotheby's on June 5, 2013, lot 12.
Its red background is rare and perhaps unique in its class, the sickle-leaf pattern variant of the 'Vase' technique. Its fine floral motifs and its palmettes make it a vibrant and sumptuous artwork in 267 x 196 cm size.
It is always difficult to date and locate an old carpet, if not by considerations of its technical characteristics. The Clark carpet is Safavid and probably Kirman. It is comparable to the best pieces woven during the reign of Shah Abbas 400 years ago.
The image is shared by Wikimedia.
Its red background is rare and perhaps unique in its class, the sickle-leaf pattern variant of the 'Vase' technique. Its fine floral motifs and its palmettes make it a vibrant and sumptuous artwork in 267 x 196 cm size.
It is always difficult to date and locate an old carpet, if not by considerations of its technical characteristics. The Clark carpet is Safavid and probably Kirman. It is comparable to the best pieces woven during the reign of Shah Abbas 400 years ago.
The image is shared by Wikimedia.
1610 Lingbi Stone by Wu Bin
2020 SOLD for RMB 510M by Poly
The gongshi is the rock of the literati. The erosion of the limestone has created strange shapes, simulating twisted columns rising to the sky. The larger ones are beloved ornaments in Chinese gardens. Lingbi, in Anshan province, is one of the three main deposits.
Mi Wanzhong, a painter and calligrapher, is a passionate collector whose artist name is Youshi, the friend of stones. Around 1610 CE he acquires an extraordinary Lingbi stone 50 cm high, simulating a forest with spectacular shrinkages and branches. He considers his artistic skills to be inadequate and calls his friend Wu Bin.
Wu Bin studies the stone for a month. His ten drawings display the specimen from all angles, with great precision of line and beautiful contrasts providing a superb texture effect. Each image is flanked by text.
Each of the ten elements measures 55 x 115 cm, for a total uninterrupted length of 11.5 m. The handscroll also includes two introductions respectively 26 x 112 cm and 48 x 143 cm and an epilogue 55 cm x 11.3 m with colophons.
Ten Views of a Lingbi Stone was sold for RMB 510M by Poly on October 18, 2020, lot 3922, after nearly an hour of bidding. It is illustrated with some enlarged details in the post sale report published by The Value. Please watch the much detailed video shared by Norton Museum of Art.
The Lingbi stone which served as a model only survived the ravages of time for a few decades.
Mi Wanzhong, a painter and calligrapher, is a passionate collector whose artist name is Youshi, the friend of stones. Around 1610 CE he acquires an extraordinary Lingbi stone 50 cm high, simulating a forest with spectacular shrinkages and branches. He considers his artistic skills to be inadequate and calls his friend Wu Bin.
Wu Bin studies the stone for a month. His ten drawings display the specimen from all angles, with great precision of line and beautiful contrasts providing a superb texture effect. Each image is flanked by text.
Each of the ten elements measures 55 x 115 cm, for a total uninterrupted length of 11.5 m. The handscroll also includes two introductions respectively 26 x 112 cm and 48 x 143 cm and an epilogue 55 cm x 11.3 m with colophons.
Ten Views of a Lingbi Stone was sold for RMB 510M by Poly on October 18, 2020, lot 3922, after nearly an hour of bidding. It is illustrated with some enlarged details in the post sale report published by The Value. Please watch the much detailed video shared by Norton Museum of Art.
The Lingbi stone which served as a model only survived the ravages of time for a few decades.
RUBENS
1
1609 Salome
2023 SOLD for $ 27M by Sotheby's
Rubens left for Italy in 1600, aged 23. Informed that his mother is dying, he rushes back to Antwerp at the end of 1608. The ongoing peace negotiations in The Hague, accompanied by cease-fire, bring great hope to Flanders, and the artist will not come back to Italy.
He was bringing to his home country the new Baroque trends in Italian art. Highly influenced by the art of Caravaggio, he features heavily emotional scenes, with dynamic and complex compositions, violent lights, bodies twisted by hatred or despair. He uses skinned figures as models for his scary naked soldiers.
He had come back to Antwerp for family reasons, but political circumstances were particularly favorable for the start of his business. In April 1609, the Antwerp treaty is ending the war between Spain and the United Provinces.
In July, Rubens is appointed court painter to the Archduke. He exercises his art for the very important commissions from the churches of Antwerp finally liberated from the wars of religion, and also for private clients.
The Italian influence on Rubens is attested by the Italianisation of his first name from Peter Paul to Pietro Paolo just before his hurried leave from Rome to Antwerp.
Salome being presented with the head of Saint John the Baptist is an early, and possibly the earliest, example of the transfer to Flanders by Rubens in 1609 of the new Baroque style.
Rubens had in mind to picture the most horrifying scenes of Bible and of Greco-Roman mythology, in the follow of Titian and Caravaggio.
He brought from Italy to Antwerp a lot of preparation drawings for this big bang of his career. The figures of over-muscular men had their inspiration in Michelangelo's sculptures and van Tetrode"s écorchés. The artist reused his drawings for his finished compositions and did not use chalk or graphite underdrawings. He also made outlinings during his process of painting.
In this breakthrough series, the psychologically complex scenes provide a full contrast between brute men and merciless women. Secondary characters such as maid women may provide intermediate feelings including a repulsion from what is happening.
The decision to decapitate the Baptist was his speaking against the royal incest of Herod with Salome's mother Herodias. A highly shocking detail of Rubens's picture is the old maid pulling the offending tongue while presenting the cut off head on a charger to a sententious Salome. That head is gliding on its blood. Another disturbing detail is the foot of the executioner on the naked back of the martyred saint. Bluish tones are added to the still bleeding corpse.
The Salome, oil on oak panel 94 x 102 cm, surfaced in 1666 in an inventory of the Royal Spanish collection. It is believed that it had been commissioned by a Spanish patron taking the advantage of the end of the Flemish war for enjoying the new art.
It was sold for $ 27M by Sotheby's on January 26, 2023, lot 5. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
He was bringing to his home country the new Baroque trends in Italian art. Highly influenced by the art of Caravaggio, he features heavily emotional scenes, with dynamic and complex compositions, violent lights, bodies twisted by hatred or despair. He uses skinned figures as models for his scary naked soldiers.
He had come back to Antwerp for family reasons, but political circumstances were particularly favorable for the start of his business. In April 1609, the Antwerp treaty is ending the war between Spain and the United Provinces.
In July, Rubens is appointed court painter to the Archduke. He exercises his art for the very important commissions from the churches of Antwerp finally liberated from the wars of religion, and also for private clients.
The Italian influence on Rubens is attested by the Italianisation of his first name from Peter Paul to Pietro Paolo just before his hurried leave from Rome to Antwerp.
Salome being presented with the head of Saint John the Baptist is an early, and possibly the earliest, example of the transfer to Flanders by Rubens in 1609 of the new Baroque style.
Rubens had in mind to picture the most horrifying scenes of Bible and of Greco-Roman mythology, in the follow of Titian and Caravaggio.
He brought from Italy to Antwerp a lot of preparation drawings for this big bang of his career. The figures of over-muscular men had their inspiration in Michelangelo's sculptures and van Tetrode"s écorchés. The artist reused his drawings for his finished compositions and did not use chalk or graphite underdrawings. He also made outlinings during his process of painting.
In this breakthrough series, the psychologically complex scenes provide a full contrast between brute men and merciless women. Secondary characters such as maid women may provide intermediate feelings including a repulsion from what is happening.
The decision to decapitate the Baptist was his speaking against the royal incest of Herod with Salome's mother Herodias. A highly shocking detail of Rubens's picture is the old maid pulling the offending tongue while presenting the cut off head on a charger to a sententious Salome. That head is gliding on its blood. Another disturbing detail is the foot of the executioner on the naked back of the martyred saint. Bluish tones are added to the still bleeding corpse.
The Salome, oil on oak panel 94 x 102 cm, surfaced in 1666 in an inventory of the Royal Spanish collection. It is believed that it had been commissioned by a Spanish patron taking the advantage of the end of the Flemish war for enjoying the new art.
It was sold for $ 27M by Sotheby's on January 26, 2023, lot 5. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
2
1610 The Massacre of the Innocents
2002 SOLD for £ 50M by Sotheby's
When Rubens returned to Antwerp in November 1608, he brought with him the new Baroque trends in Italian art. He exercises his art for the very important commissions from the churches of Antwerp finally liberated from the wars of religion, and also for private clients.
Highly influenced by the art of Caravaggio at that time, Rubens shows heavily emotional scenes, with dynamic and complex compositions, violent lights, bodies twisted by hatred or despair. He uses skinned figures as models for his scary naked soldiers.
Two paintings made for private use at the beginning of this new phase entered together in 1702 in the collection of the princes of Liechtenstein. After a loss of traceability in the inventories of the Liechtenstein collection, the two artworks were later attributed to an assistant from the end of career of Rubens named Jan van den Hoecke.
Samson et Delilah is an oil on wood 185 x 205 cm originally painted for the collection of the Lord Mayor of Antwerp. The theme of the colossus neutralized by the ingenuity of women, staged at the fatal moment, may be compared with the Judith of Caravaggio. The original version was authenticated in 1929 and sold by Christie's on July 11, 1980 for £ 2.53M.
The Massacre of the Innocents (De kindermoord te Bethlehem) was known by a copy kept in Brussels. The version attributed to van den Hoecke is brought for sale to Sotheby's. Comparing this 142 x 182 cm oil on wood with the Samson and Delilah, the expert of the auction house recognizes that he has in his hands the real original by Rubens.
This reattribution is convincing. The Massacre of the Innocents is sold for £ 50M by Sotheby's on July 10, 2002 from a lower estimate of £ 4M. Here is the link to the pre sale press release. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
1610 is considered as the most likely year for the creation of this artwork. The background of the image does not show Bethlehem but the temple of Castor and Pollux, proving that Rubens was still dazzled by the beauties of Rome. It has been also considered as a reminiscence from the atrocities of the religious wars. It is undoubtedly a masterpiece by Rubens, in a near perfect condition.
Highly influenced by the art of Caravaggio at that time, Rubens shows heavily emotional scenes, with dynamic and complex compositions, violent lights, bodies twisted by hatred or despair. He uses skinned figures as models for his scary naked soldiers.
Two paintings made for private use at the beginning of this new phase entered together in 1702 in the collection of the princes of Liechtenstein. After a loss of traceability in the inventories of the Liechtenstein collection, the two artworks were later attributed to an assistant from the end of career of Rubens named Jan van den Hoecke.
Samson et Delilah is an oil on wood 185 x 205 cm originally painted for the collection of the Lord Mayor of Antwerp. The theme of the colossus neutralized by the ingenuity of women, staged at the fatal moment, may be compared with the Judith of Caravaggio. The original version was authenticated in 1929 and sold by Christie's on July 11, 1980 for £ 2.53M.
The Massacre of the Innocents (De kindermoord te Bethlehem) was known by a copy kept in Brussels. The version attributed to van den Hoecke is brought for sale to Sotheby's. Comparing this 142 x 182 cm oil on wood with the Samson and Delilah, the expert of the auction house recognizes that he has in his hands the real original by Rubens.
This reattribution is convincing. The Massacre of the Innocents is sold for £ 50M by Sotheby's on July 10, 2002 from a lower estimate of £ 4M. Here is the link to the pre sale press release. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
1610 is considered as the most likely year for the creation of this artwork. The background of the image does not show Bethlehem but the temple of Castor and Pollux, proving that Rubens was still dazzled by the beauties of Rome. It has been also considered as a reminiscence from the atrocities of the religious wars. It is undoubtedly a masterpiece by Rubens, in a near perfect condition.
_De_kindermoord_te_Bethlehem_-_Rubenshuis_Antwerpen_27-09-2018.jpg)
3
1614 Lot and his Daughters
2016 SOLD for £ 45M by Christie's
Peter Paul Rubens was able to achieve the dream of the greatest artists : assimilating the art of his predecessors and going further. He came back from Italy in 1608 and settled in Antwerp, the city of his childhood. Peace has returned and the time is conducive to art. Aristocratic and religious commissions flow.
In Italy, Rubens had admired Titian. In the north, he sees the increasingly risqué themes by Goltzius and Wtewael. Taboos fall : Bible and mythology offer erotic stories through moral excuses.
On July 7, 2016, Christie's sold as lot 12 for £ 45M Lot and his daughters, oil on canvas 190 x 225 cm painted by Rubens circa 1614. This painting is a rediscovery : it had not been seen since a failed attempt of sale in 1904 and 1905 and its re-inspection pushes it among the masterpieces of the artist.
Rubens offers here a three character scene of high psychological complexity. In 1608, François de Sales judged that the story of Lot was not an incest but a forgivable sin. Lot is a nice old drunkard, like Noah.
In his great compositions from this phase of his career, Rubens wisely mixes nude and clothing. Although the bare flesh is the main target of the work, such a mingled attire brings presence and actuality to his antique theme. Samson and Delilah, the Massacre of the Innocents and the Drunken Silenus are other famous examples.
The abundant flesh is processed in an impasto that allows subtle variations of light and texture and promotes the sensual effect despite the advanced age of the man. Lot and his daughters remained in excellent condition in which only an aging varnish may be slightly blamed.
The artist had carefully read the Genesis : the two women were not made pregnant in the same day and only one is naked, ready but also worrying for the act. Her sister is closer to the father, with the charming smile of a woman who is achieving her conspiracy. The attitude and indeed the splendidly haggard gaze of the man express his full intoxication that encourages the nude girl to pour the wine once again. The Silenus will reuse similar characters in 1616.
Please watch the video shared by Christie's. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
In Italy, Rubens had admired Titian. In the north, he sees the increasingly risqué themes by Goltzius and Wtewael. Taboos fall : Bible and mythology offer erotic stories through moral excuses.
On July 7, 2016, Christie's sold as lot 12 for £ 45M Lot and his daughters, oil on canvas 190 x 225 cm painted by Rubens circa 1614. This painting is a rediscovery : it had not been seen since a failed attempt of sale in 1904 and 1905 and its re-inspection pushes it among the masterpieces of the artist.
Rubens offers here a three character scene of high psychological complexity. In 1608, François de Sales judged that the story of Lot was not an incest but a forgivable sin. Lot is a nice old drunkard, like Noah.
In his great compositions from this phase of his career, Rubens wisely mixes nude and clothing. Although the bare flesh is the main target of the work, such a mingled attire brings presence and actuality to his antique theme. Samson and Delilah, the Massacre of the Innocents and the Drunken Silenus are other famous examples.
The abundant flesh is processed in an impasto that allows subtle variations of light and texture and promotes the sensual effect despite the advanced age of the man. Lot and his daughters remained in excellent condition in which only an aging varnish may be slightly blamed.
The artist had carefully read the Genesis : the two women were not made pregnant in the same day and only one is naked, ready but also worrying for the act. Her sister is closer to the father, with the charming smile of a woman who is achieving her conspiracy. The attitude and indeed the splendidly haggard gaze of the man express his full intoxication that encourages the nude girl to pour the wine once again. The Silenus will reuse similar characters in 1616.
Please watch the video shared by Christie's. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
4
1619-1622 Portrait of a Man as the God Mars
2023 SOLD for $ 26M by Sotheby's
A Portrait of a Man as the God Mars by Rubens, oil on canvas 83 x 66 cm, was sold by Sotheby's for $ 8.3M on January 28, 2000, lot 51, for £ 4.4M on July 10, 2002, lot 52, and for $ 26M on May 16, 2023, lot 133. Please watch the video shared by the auction house. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
This warrior featured slightly over life size holds a pike and wears a helmet, tunic, mail shirt, cuirass and lion's pelt. By the confronting gaze and the aggressively curved nose, it is a heroic allegory. De Chirico re-used this proud and confident image in a Self portrait with a helmet.
This Baroque imaginary portrait is seeming close to the Titus from Titian's series of Roman Caesars in armors in the Palace of Mantua, lost in a fire in 1734.
A keen collector of antique art and artifacts, Rubens owned a similar helmet all'antica, in fact a very rare Renaissance parade replica.
The date has been much debated. A recent iteration is suggesting between 1619 and 1622 based of the technique used to paint the feather and fur, thus positioning it after the Decimus Mus tapestry cycle and before he left for Paris for a royal commission. He portrayed the queen mother Marie de Médicis as a sister goddess of Mars.
This warrior featured slightly over life size holds a pike and wears a helmet, tunic, mail shirt, cuirass and lion's pelt. By the confronting gaze and the aggressively curved nose, it is a heroic allegory. De Chirico re-used this proud and confident image in a Self portrait with a helmet.
This Baroque imaginary portrait is seeming close to the Titus from Titian's series of Roman Caesars in armors in the Palace of Mantua, lost in a fire in 1734.
A keen collector of antique art and artifacts, Rubens owned a similar helmet all'antica, in fact a very rare Renaissance parade replica.
The date has been much debated. A recent iteration is suggesting between 1619 and 1622 based of the technique used to paint the feather and fur, thus positioning it after the Decimus Mus tapestry cycle and before he left for Paris for a royal commission. He portrayed the queen mother Marie de Médicis as a sister goddess of Mars.
1621 Danae by Gentileschi
2016 SOLD for $ 30.5M by Sotheby's
Born in Pisa, Orazio Gentileschi begins his career in Rome. He does not follow the anti-mannerism of the Carracci nor the tenebrism of Caravaggio. His art is nevertheless modern for his time with beautiful contrasts and a pleasant naturalism.
In 1621, he is invited by the wealthy Genovese merchant Giovanni Antonio Sauli, son of a former Doge of that city, to work in his palazzo as a painter and as an artistic adviser. Gentileschi executes three monumental paintings on the theme of mystical love, an excuse for displaying sensual nudes.
Sublimating the religions, the artist chooses his stories in the Old Testament, Christian parables and Greek myths. Lot's daughters symbolize the expectation, Danae the annunciation and Magdalene the repentance. Success is immediate and in the practice of his time the artist himself will paint a few copies.
The three original paintings of the Palazzo Sauli have long remained in the descendance of the patron. Danae, oil on canvas 161 x 227 cm, was sold for $ 30.5M by Sotheby's on January 28, 2016, lot 41.
The princess lies on her unmade bed. She is nude excepted a veil of chastity. Cupid opens the curtains to let going the lightning of Jupiter in the form of a shower of golden coins and ribbons. The gesture of the young woman is peaceful and welcoming, with her arm raised in the same oblique direction as the movement of the fertilizing god disguised as gold.
Gentileschi had been too often described as a Caravaggian but his Danae is a masterpiece of late profane mannerism. I invite you to watch the video shared by Sotheby's where the monumental nature of the artwork is highlighted. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
In 1621, he is invited by the wealthy Genovese merchant Giovanni Antonio Sauli, son of a former Doge of that city, to work in his palazzo as a painter and as an artistic adviser. Gentileschi executes three monumental paintings on the theme of mystical love, an excuse for displaying sensual nudes.
Sublimating the religions, the artist chooses his stories in the Old Testament, Christian parables and Greek myths. Lot's daughters symbolize the expectation, Danae the annunciation and Magdalene the repentance. Success is immediate and in the practice of his time the artist himself will paint a few copies.
The three original paintings of the Palazzo Sauli have long remained in the descendance of the patron. Danae, oil on canvas 161 x 227 cm, was sold for $ 30.5M by Sotheby's on January 28, 2016, lot 41.
The princess lies on her unmade bed. She is nude excepted a veil of chastity. Cupid opens the curtains to let going the lightning of Jupiter in the form of a shower of golden coins and ribbons. The gesture of the young woman is peaceful and welcoming, with her arm raised in the same oblique direction as the movement of the fertilizing god disguised as gold.
Gentileschi had been too often described as a Caravaggian but his Danae is a masterpiece of late profane mannerism. I invite you to watch the video shared by Sotheby's where the monumental nature of the artwork is highlighted. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
1626 bronze by de Vries
2014 SOLD for $ 28M by Christie's
Influenced by Giambologna, Adriaen De Vries was spreading the new fashion for mannerism. Their bronzes give life to muscular bodies twisted in expressive attitudes inspired by antiquity, and which will be much later admired by Rodin. De Vries is famous for his statues for gardens and fountains. Working in Prague for the Emperor Rudolf II, he remained in that city after the death of his patron and accepted private commissions.
During a routine visit to a castle in 2010, the expert from Christie's takes a look at the fountain in the middle of the yard. Thus a previously unrecorded masterpiece enters the art history.
The bronze 109 cm high adorning the top of the fountain had been in that place for at least 300 years. It is signed by Adriaen de Vries and dated 1626, the year of the artist's death. The theme is a naked standing mythological figure carrying a globe. It was sold for $ 28M from a lower estimate of $ 15M by Christie's on December 11, 2014, lot 10.
On December 7, 1989, the Getty bought at Sotheby's for £ 6.8M a Dancing faun 76 cm high.
During a routine visit to a castle in 2010, the expert from Christie's takes a look at the fountain in the middle of the yard. Thus a previously unrecorded masterpiece enters the art history.
The bronze 109 cm high adorning the top of the fountain had been in that place for at least 300 years. It is signed by Adriaen de Vries and dated 1626, the year of the artist's death. The theme is a naked standing mythological figure carrying a globe. It was sold for $ 28M from a lower estimate of $ 15M by Christie's on December 11, 2014, lot 10.
On December 7, 1989, the Getty bought at Sotheby's for £ 6.8M a Dancing faun 76 cm high.
REMBRANDT
1
1658 Portrait of a Man
2009 SOLD for £ 20.2M by Christie's
The half length portrait of a man by Rembrandt, oil on canvas 107 x 87 cm painted in 1658, was sold by Christie's for £ 20.2M on December 8, 2009. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
It had not been seen publicly since 1970 and was not included in the major exhibition made by the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam in 2006 to celebrate the 400 th anniversary of the birth of the artist.
It had not been seen publicly since 1970 and was not included in the major exhibition made by the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam in 2006 to celebrate the 400 th anniversary of the birth of the artist.
2
1661 Saint James the Greater
2007 SOLD for $ 26M by Sotheby's
The portraits inspired to Rembrandt by the New Testament are from figures of the artist's entourage, with a view to realism. In Sevilla, Murillo has a similar approach.
Around 1648 Rembrandt was in one of his frequent financially and socially difficult periods, and he would like his Supper at Emmaus, a modern painting on a biblical theme, to relaunch his career. The portraits of a young man as Christ are studies painted in parallel or for the preparation of this masterpiece. An oil on panel 25 x 21 cm was sold for £ 9.5M by Sotheby's on December 5, 2018.
The artist is indeed satisfied with this personification of Christ. The same young man appears as a Christ in half length with folded arms, oil on canvas 110 x 90 cm generally dated between 1657 and 1661.
In 1661 Rembrandt paints a series of Apostles, looking again at what the like of some of Christ's companions could be. This set of oils on canvas is homogeneous by its format, around 92 x 75 cm, by its chromatic richness, and by the presence of a thin black border which has not always been preserved.
This corpus of six works including a self portrait as Saint Paul was not documented in period. They were painted in another difficult phase for the artist and may have been conceived as a new demonstrator of the ever increasing quality of his art.
Rembrandt's faith was complex. His father was from a Jewish family converted to the Reformed church and his mother was Catholic. His realism excludes an identification of the character's religious position by a halo. The half length portrait of an old pilgrim in neglected clothes enters through its pictorial characteristics in the series of the Apostles, and the differentiated history of the companions of Christ after the Passion makes it attribute to Saint James the Greater.
This portrait of a man with a face concentrated on his prayer, whose very large joined hands form the focal point of the image, is an allegory of a faith that transcends appearances, directly linked to the Gospels and without any reference to the Mendicant orders. .
This painting was sold for $ 26M by Sotheby's on January 25, 2007, lot 74. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
Around 1648 Rembrandt was in one of his frequent financially and socially difficult periods, and he would like his Supper at Emmaus, a modern painting on a biblical theme, to relaunch his career. The portraits of a young man as Christ are studies painted in parallel or for the preparation of this masterpiece. An oil on panel 25 x 21 cm was sold for £ 9.5M by Sotheby's on December 5, 2018.
The artist is indeed satisfied with this personification of Christ. The same young man appears as a Christ in half length with folded arms, oil on canvas 110 x 90 cm generally dated between 1657 and 1661.
In 1661 Rembrandt paints a series of Apostles, looking again at what the like of some of Christ's companions could be. This set of oils on canvas is homogeneous by its format, around 92 x 75 cm, by its chromatic richness, and by the presence of a thin black border which has not always been preserved.
This corpus of six works including a self portrait as Saint Paul was not documented in period. They were painted in another difficult phase for the artist and may have been conceived as a new demonstrator of the ever increasing quality of his art.
Rembrandt's faith was complex. His father was from a Jewish family converted to the Reformed church and his mother was Catholic. His realism excludes an identification of the character's religious position by a halo. The half length portrait of an old pilgrim in neglected clothes enters through its pictorial characteristics in the series of the Apostles, and the differentiated history of the companions of Christ after the Passion makes it attribute to Saint James the Greater.
This portrait of a man with a face concentrated on his prayer, whose very large joined hands form the focal point of the image, is an allegory of a faith that transcends appearances, directly linked to the Gospels and without any reference to the Mendicant orders. .
This painting was sold for $ 26M by Sotheby's on January 25, 2007, lot 74. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
