Rembrandt van Rijn - Christ and St. Mary Magdalene at the Tomb 1638
Christ and St. Mary Magdalene at the Tomb 1638
61x49cm oil, board
Royal Collection Trust, UK
The image is only being used for informational and educational purposes
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From Royal Collection Trust:
Rembrandt skilfully evokes the dawn as the opalescent light picks out from the darkness the towers of the Temple of Jerusalem, the upper half of the figure of Christ, the face of Mary Magdalene, and the outline of one of the angels in the tomb. This use of light is almost symbolic in both the physical and the spiritual senses. The paint is in general thinly applied and, apart from the treatment of the light and the vegetation around the tomb referring to Christ’s activities as a gardener), could almost be described as monochrome. It is only after a time that the eye focuses on the two female figures (the Gospels of St Mark and St Luke refer to three Maries at the tomb) in the middle distance on the left descending the hill.