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Rembrandt’s Representation of Jesus examined at the Philadelphia Museum of Art

Rembrandt - The Supper at Emmaus

Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn
The Supper at Emmaus, 1648
Paris, Musée du Louvre

“Rembrandt and the Face of Jesus” in Philadelphia Organized by the the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Detroit Institute of Arts and the Musée du Louvre, the exhibition “Rembrandt and the Face of Jesus” presents an excellent group of religious paintings by Rembrandt van Rijn.

August 3-October 20, 2011

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Source: Philadelphia Museum of Art / theartwolf.com

The exhibition is organized into three sections: a prologue; the series of painted heads of Christ; and an epilogue that includes works by Rembrandt and his students. As the Museum explains in a press release, “Rembrandt began at the outset of his career by using the traditional head of Christ (…) By the later 1640s, however, Rembrandt achieved a greater spiritual resonance in his work”.

Highlights of the exhibition includes the recently restored “Supper at Emmaus” (1648) from the Musée du Louvre, and the important “Christ and the Woman Taken into Adultery” from the National Gallery of London (1644). Of course, the “Head of Christ” from the Philadelphia Museum of Art (c. 1648-56) is also displayed at the exhibition. According to the Museum, this small panel “can now be seen for the first time in its most illuminating context”.

The exhibition also explores Rembrandt’s relationship with the Jewish community. The Museum explains that the artist used a young Sephardic Jew as a model for his paintings of Jesus, and that it was probably the first time in the history of Western art that Jesus appeared to be Jewish.

“Rembrandt and the Face of Jesus” took place at the Musée du Louvre from April 20 to July 18, 2011, and is displayed at the Philadelphia Museum of Art from August 3 to October 20, 2011. Then, it will travel to the Detroit Institute of Arts, from November 20, 2011 to February 12, 2012.

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Rembrandt's Representation of Jesus examined at the Philadelphia Museum of Art