Rembrandt and the Face of Jesus

Edited by Lloyd DeWitt, with a preface by Seymour Slive and contributions by Lloyd DeWitt, Blaise Ducos, Franziska Gottwald, George S. Keyes, Shelley Perlove, Larry Silver, Ken Sutherland, and Mark Tucker

Details

Hardcover
256 pages, 10 x 12 ½ in.
130 color + 20 b/w illus.
Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2011
ISBN 9780300169577

With the creation of the dramatic Supper at Emmaus (Louvre) and a series of intimate oil sketches of Christ on oak panels, Rembrandt van Rijn (1606–1669) overturned the entire history of Christian art. Traditionally, when depicting Christ, artists had relied on rigidly copied prototypes and icons. Among Rembrandt’s innovations was his use of a Jewish model to portray a Christ imbued with empathy, gentleness, grace, and faithfulness to nature.

Lavishly illustrated, this captivating and important book presents the seven known panels, along with more than sixty paintings, drawings, and prints by Rembrandt and his pupils. Essays by expert contributors offer insights into the production of the panels and their relationship to other works in Rembrandt’s oeuvre; how he changed the meaning and status of the canonical image of Christ in northern European art; and much more. Rembrandt and the Face of Jesus is a marvelously intriguing study of how one of the greatest painters of the Dutch Golden Age revolutionized an aspect of art history dating to antiquity.

About the Authors

Lloyd DeWitt is associate curator in the Department of European Painting before 1900 at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Blaise Ducos is curator in the Departement des Peintures at the Musée du Louvre, Paris. Franziska Gottwald is a postdoctoral fellow at Queens University, Kingston, Ontario. George S. Keyes is curator emeritus of European paintings at the Detroit Institute of Arts. Shelley Perlove is professor of art history at the University of Michigan, Dearborn. Larry Silver is professor of Northern Renaissance art at the University of Pennsylvania. Seymour Slive was formerly director of the Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University. Ken Sutherland is conservation scientist and Mark Tucker is vice chairman of conservation, both at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.