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拍品專文
From early on Rembrandt was famed and admired for his handling of light and darkness. In 1699 the French artist, printmaker and critic Roger de Piles noted that ‘He had a supreme understanding of light and dark.’ (quoted by E. Hinterding, in: Bikker, 2024, p. 173). The first cataloguer of Rembrandt’s prints, Edmé-François Gersaint, wrote in 1744: ‘There has never been an artist so adept at using light and dark: his touch, both in his paintings and in his prints, was very skilled […] his reputation is entirely due to his genius, his reflections and his continuous study of the effects of light in nature, which he portrayed with a surprising exactitude and force.’ (quoted ibid.)
This impression of The Descent from the Cross by Torchlight is a compelling example of the difference choice of paper and inking can make to the same image. Most fine, early impressions of this print are remarkable for the dramatic lighting and the intense contrasts between the surrounding darkness and the few bright areas, illuminated by the single torch held by the man beneath the cross. In these impressions, the cleanly wiped elements stand out starkly against the velvety, pitch-black background. Most startling is the hand reaching out of the dark towards the head of the dead Christ (for a brilliant impression in this manner, see the other example from the Josefowitz Collection, sold Christie's, London, 7 December 2023, lot 24). The present impression, printed on a sheet of thin Chinese paper, is printed in an entirely different way, with substantial tone left on the surface of the plate throughout. The illuminated areas are not, as is usually the case, selectively wiped to stand out against the dark. Rather, they merge into the night and the eyes of the viewer have to strain to see the what is happening in the gloomy twilight, insufficiently lit by a single flame. As an experiment in lighting, this print is more extreme than the lightly tonal impression of Christ preaching ('La Petite Tombe') in this catalogue (see lot 46), while the breathtaking impression of The Entombment (see lot 50) marks the radical endpoint of Rembrandt's 'journey into the dark' as a printmaker.
In either iteration - wiped clean or intensely tonal - the handling of light and darkness on this plate is daring, and so is the composition. The central event of the narrative, the dead Christ being taken down from the Cross, is pushed into the upper left corner of the image and partially cut off. We see the dead body, some of the men lowering him and the figure holding the torch. The Cross itself is not fully visible. The viewpoint is from the lower right towards the upper left, and the first detail that comes into focus is the foot of Christ still nailed to the Cross. Only then does the gaze follow the legs towards His torso and lifeless head. In the foreground we see the bier covered with the shroud to carry the dead body, rising at a slight angle from the lower left towards the right. The image is thus formally constructed along two trajectories: the winding sheet and the whole group around the Cross point downwards, the bier upwards. These verticals meet at the shadowy figure crouched to arrange the shroud. This is Joseph of Arimathea, the true protagonist of the event:
When the even was come, there came a rich man of Arimathea, named Joseph, who also himself was Jesus’ disciple: He went to Pilate, and begged the body of Jesus. Then Pilate commanded the body to be delivered. And when Joseph had taken the body, he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out in the rock: and he rolled a great stone to the door of the sepulchre, and departed. (Matthew 27:57-60)
The print belongs to a small group of mid-sized prints, all created in or around 1654, on the Life of Christ. It may be that Rembrandt had envisaged a larger series, but he realised only four subjects, three of which are included in this catalogue: The Presentation in the Temple, in the dark Manner (B. 50; NH. New Holl. 285); the present Descent from the Cross by Torchlight; The Entombment; and Christ at Emmaus: the larger Plate (lots 50 & 52). In all of them, the depiction of light is the formal challenge that Rembrandt set himself, be it the supernatural light emanating from the apparition of Jesus in Christ at Emmaus, the barely lit internal spaces in the Entombment and the Presentation in the Temple, or the torchlight in the present plate, the latter three being true night scenes.
With his two impressions of The Descent from the Cross by Torchlight, Sam Josefowitz was once again able to acquire two very different 'interpretations' of the same image, which - as so often in his collection - made for a rare and fascinating comparison.
This impression of The Descent from the Cross by Torchlight is a compelling example of the difference choice of paper and inking can make to the same image. Most fine, early impressions of this print are remarkable for the dramatic lighting and the intense contrasts between the surrounding darkness and the few bright areas, illuminated by the single torch held by the man beneath the cross. In these impressions, the cleanly wiped elements stand out starkly against the velvety, pitch-black background. Most startling is the hand reaching out of the dark towards the head of the dead Christ (for a brilliant impression in this manner, see the other example from the Josefowitz Collection, sold Christie's, London, 7 December 2023, lot 24). The present impression, printed on a sheet of thin Chinese paper, is printed in an entirely different way, with substantial tone left on the surface of the plate throughout. The illuminated areas are not, as is usually the case, selectively wiped to stand out against the dark. Rather, they merge into the night and the eyes of the viewer have to strain to see the what is happening in the gloomy twilight, insufficiently lit by a single flame. As an experiment in lighting, this print is more extreme than the lightly tonal impression of Christ preaching ('La Petite Tombe') in this catalogue (see lot 46), while the breathtaking impression of The Entombment (see lot 50) marks the radical endpoint of Rembrandt's 'journey into the dark' as a printmaker.
In either iteration - wiped clean or intensely tonal - the handling of light and darkness on this plate is daring, and so is the composition. The central event of the narrative, the dead Christ being taken down from the Cross, is pushed into the upper left corner of the image and partially cut off. We see the dead body, some of the men lowering him and the figure holding the torch. The Cross itself is not fully visible. The viewpoint is from the lower right towards the upper left, and the first detail that comes into focus is the foot of Christ still nailed to the Cross. Only then does the gaze follow the legs towards His torso and lifeless head. In the foreground we see the bier covered with the shroud to carry the dead body, rising at a slight angle from the lower left towards the right. The image is thus formally constructed along two trajectories: the winding sheet and the whole group around the Cross point downwards, the bier upwards. These verticals meet at the shadowy figure crouched to arrange the shroud. This is Joseph of Arimathea, the true protagonist of the event:
When the even was come, there came a rich man of Arimathea, named Joseph, who also himself was Jesus’ disciple: He went to Pilate, and begged the body of Jesus. Then Pilate commanded the body to be delivered. And when Joseph had taken the body, he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out in the rock: and he rolled a great stone to the door of the sepulchre, and departed. (Matthew 27:57-60)
The print belongs to a small group of mid-sized prints, all created in or around 1654, on the Life of Christ. It may be that Rembrandt had envisaged a larger series, but he realised only four subjects, three of which are included in this catalogue: The Presentation in the Temple, in the dark Manner (B. 50; NH. New Holl. 285); the present Descent from the Cross by Torchlight; The Entombment; and Christ at Emmaus: the larger Plate (lots 50 & 52). In all of them, the depiction of light is the formal challenge that Rembrandt set himself, be it the supernatural light emanating from the apparition of Jesus in Christ at Emmaus, the barely lit internal spaces in the Entombment and the Presentation in the Temple, or the torchlight in the present plate, the latter three being true night scenes.
With his two impressions of The Descent from the Cross by Torchlight, Sam Josefowitz was once again able to acquire two very different 'interpretations' of the same image, which - as so often in his collection - made for a rare and fascinating comparison.