120 The Mocking of Christ
Pen and brown ink; H: 18.2 cm (jl/s in.); W: 24.5 c
(9ZI/i6in.)
83.GA.358
MARKS AND INSCRIPTIONS: At bottom left, collectio
mark of Leon Bonnat (L. 1714).
PROVENANCE: Pierre Crozat, Paris; Edward Vernon Ut
terson, London; Charles Gasc, Paris; Leon Bonnat, Pari
Fernand Widal; Mme Josette Widal (sale, Sotheby's
London, December 10, 1968, lot 58); private collection
New Jersey.EXHIBITIONS: Exposition d'oeuvres de Rembrandt, Biblio
theque Nationale, Paris, 1908, no. 355.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: F. Lippmann (continued by C. Hofste
de de Groot), Original Drawings by Rembrandt, 3rd ser
(The Hague, 1903 -1911), no. 21; C. Hofstede de Groot
Die Handzeichnungen Rembrandts (Haarlem, 1906), no
697; E. W. Bredt, Rembrandt-Bibel (Munich, 1921), vol
2, p. 83; O. Benesch, Rembrandt: Werk undForschung (Vi
enna, 1935), p. 62; idem, Rembrandt: Selected Drawing
(London, 1947), p. 28, no. 25 8 (wrongly described as i
the Bonnat collection, Bayonne); idem, The Drawings o
Rembrandt (London, 1957), vol. 5, no. 1024, fig. 1238; S
Slive, Drawings of Rembrandt (New York, 1965), vol. 2
no. 353; O. Benesch, The Drawings of Rembrandt (Lon
don, 1973), vol. 5, no. 1024, fig. 1308; F. Stampfle, Ru
bens and Rembrandt in Their Century, exh. cat, Pierpon
Morgan Library, New York, and other institutions
!979> P- IO5> under no. 73.
mn- s;
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THIS IS ONE OF TWO DRAWINGS BY REMBRANDT OF
this subject, both of which appear to date from the early
to mid-i65os; the other is in the Pierpont Morgan Li-
brary, New York (inv. i, 189; Benesch 1973, vol. 5, no.
920). There has been some disagreement about their
chronological sequence. Benesch has placed the Morgan
Library drawing at about 1652-1653 and the Museum's
sheet around 1656-1657 (Benesch 1973, vol. 5, nos. 920,
1024), whereas Stampfle appears to have reversed their
order, suggesting that the Morgan Library sheet is the
more developed (1979, p. 105). The Morgan Library
drawing is more elaborate in the inclusion of detail and
more descriptive in terms of both setting and the phys-
ical substance of the figures. By contrast, the Museum's
drawing isolates the figures in a cavernous void in which
psychological meaning and the subtle dramatic interplay
of participants dominate. The composition is therefore
more reflective and profound in expression, intention-
ally less animated in gesture and anecdotal.
In the Museum's drawing Rembrandt first outlined
the composition in a pale ink and then went over it in a
darker ink to correct and emphasize parts of the left-hand
group. This process is comparable to his manner of ex-
ecuting The Washing of the Feet (Amsterdam, Rijksmu-
seum, inv. A 2053; Benesch 1973 , vol. 5, no. 931). There
too Rembrandt left the setting almost entirely undes-
cribed, focusing attention on one significant figural and
gestural relationship. The Mocking of Christ evolved from
the style of the Amsterdam drawing and should proba-
bly be dated around 1652-1655.
The Mocking of Christ has few equals in its spatial and
expressive subtlety. The placement of a large, somewhat
undifferentiated group of figures at the left establishes a
visual foil for the spatially separate and emotionally dis-
parate presentation of the forlorn image of Christ and the
mocking soldier kneeling before him. The figure to his
right is only part of an "architectural" frame at the left,
hardly disturbing the principal dramatic contrast around
which the scene is built. There are few drawings in which
the areas left blank are used as purposefully and effec-
tively as here.268 DUTCH SCHOOL • REMBRANDT