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Lot Essay
This fine impression of Christ at Emmaus: the larger Plate printed on laid paper is the last in the sequence of episodes from the Life of Christ Rembrandt treated in a group of four prints created in and around 1654, three of which are presented here (see also lots 49 & 50). The print depicts one of the early sightings of the risen Christ following His death on the Cross. According to the Gospel of Luke, two disciples including one called Cleopas left Jerusalem on the day the tomb of Christ had been found empty. On the road to Emmaus they encounter a stranger and talk to him about Jesus of Nazareth, His crucifixion and the rumour of His resurrection. The stranger reprimands them for doubting the prophesies, which he recounts for them.
And they drew nigh unto the village, whither they went: and he made as though he would have gone further. But they constrained him, saying, Abide with us: for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent. And he went in to tarry with them. And it came to pass, as he sat at meat with them, he took bread, and blessed it, and brake, and gave to them. And their eyes were opened, and they knew him; and he vanished out of their sight.
(Luke 24:28-31)
The plate is executed in a rapidly drawn, open style with wide-spaced hatchings, in manner similar to the first state of The Entombment (see p. 118). Unlike the other three prints from this group, this is not a night scene, and yet Rembrandt’s interest here too is the depiction of light (see also lot 51). Christ’s head and torso is barely defined, especially on His left, and the head is surrounded by radiating lines suggestive of the divine light emanating from Him. The vagueness of the figure of Christ evokes the ephemeral nature of this apparition. It is an effect that Camillo Procaccini (1555-1629) may have been the first to attempt in etching, in his Transfiguration of circa 1587-90, a print that Rembrandt may well have known or even owned.
And they drew nigh unto the village, whither they went: and he made as though he would have gone further. But they constrained him, saying, Abide with us: for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent. And he went in to tarry with them. And it came to pass, as he sat at meat with them, he took bread, and blessed it, and brake, and gave to them. And their eyes were opened, and they knew him; and he vanished out of their sight.
(Luke 24:28-31)
The plate is executed in a rapidly drawn, open style with wide-spaced hatchings, in manner similar to the first state of The Entombment (see p. 118). Unlike the other three prints from this group, this is not a night scene, and yet Rembrandt’s interest here too is the depiction of light (see also lot 51). Christ’s head and torso is barely defined, especially on His left, and the head is surrounded by radiating lines suggestive of the divine light emanating from Him. The vagueness of the figure of Christ evokes the ephemeral nature of this apparition. It is an effect that Camillo Procaccini (1555-1629) may have been the first to attempt in etching, in his Transfiguration of circa 1587-90, a print that Rembrandt may well have known or even owned.