The Self-Portrait as the Apostle Paul (1661) is a splendid late self-portrait,
by an artist famous for his self-portraits. Why did Rembrandt paint himself
as Paul? St. Paul, the skeptic, the convert from Judaism to Christianity, was
torn between the spiritual and the temporal. Rembrandt felt a strong kinship
with Paul; in addition to this Self-Portrait as St. Paul, he painted four or ¿ ve
other images of the apostle.
We turn to our last two paintings, produced at the very end of the artist’s
life, The Jewish Bride (1668–1669) and the Return of the Prodigal Son
(c. 1668–1669). Many suggestions have been made about the probable
biblical subject of The Jewish Bride. It has long been suggested that the
couple is the biblical Isaac and Rebecca. A drawing by Rembrandt seems
to con¿ rm this. It speci¿ cally links this painting to a moment in Genesis 26.
Isaac and Rebecca are pretending, for his safety, to be brother and sister but
are discovered in an embrace by Abimalech, the king of the Philistines. The
drawing shows a larger composition, which means that this painting has been
cut down. The painting may be both a contemporary portrait and a depiction
of the Old Testament couple. We see in a detail of the couple that the work is
about the power of a human embrace.
The Return of the Prodigal Son illustrates a scene from Luke 15:11–32, the
parable of Christ that is most frequently depicted in art. Ŷ
Rembrandt van Rijn:
Angel Appearing to the Shepherds, 1634, etching, drypoint, engraving,
10 ¼ x 8 ½” (26.2 x 21.8 cm).
Bathsheba, 1654, oil on canvas, 4’ 8” square (142 cm square), Musée du
Louvre, Paris, France.
Blinding of Samson, 1636, oil on canvas, 6’ 7” x 8’ 9” (2 x 2.6 m),
Städelsches Kunstinstitut, Frankfurt, Germany.Christ Preaching, c. 1652, etching and drypoint, 11 x 15 ¼”
(28 x 40 cm), The Pierpont Morgan Library, New York City,
New York, USA.Works Discussed