Christ preaching (‘La petite Tombe’)

Details

Bartsch 67; White/Boon 67 I (von I); Hinterding/Rutgers (The New Hollstein) 298 I (von II).

Description

A superb early impression, finely drawn and deep black in the dark areas. The ridge on the sleeve of the man with turban already slightly worn. With a fine margin around the platemark.
The sheet is one of Rembrandt’s main sheets and was already highly sought after during his lifetime. The depiction fascinates with its clear simplification and unification and aims for concentration. The sheet is one of the master’s “greatest compositions, of rare unity and at the same time with an extremely powerful effect of light. (…). The process is depicted simply and convincingly” (von Seydlitz). Rembrandt drew inspiration for individual figures and gestures from older masters. The semi-circular arrangement of the figures around Christ can be traced back to Raphael’s Disputa (Pächt). Yet despite all the references, Rembrandt created an independent, atmospheric masterpiece with the power of his chiaroscuro, in which teacher and audience form a perceptible unity without baroque pathos. The name “La petite tombe” is based on a misunderstanding on Gersaint’s part: in Clement de Jonghe’s 1679 inventory of his estate, the panel was labelled “La toombisch plaatjens”, after the collector La Tombe, brother of Rembrandt’s friend Jacob de La Tombe, who had originally owned the panel. As Christ is depicted standing on a raised pedestal, which could be mistaken for a sarcophagus, the proper name La Tombe was confused with the French term “la tombe” for the tomb (Schaar). – With carefully restored, partially backed, minor paper losses at the edges. Paper with brown stains predominantly in the left margin. The upper corners and the lower left corner restored and partially re-drawn, otherwise still in good condition.
Rarely this early!