Christ Presented to the People
Christ Presented to the People, also known as Ostentatio Christi or Ecce Homo, is a drypoint print by Rembrandt van Rijn which exists in eight states, all c.1655. It is one of the two largest prints made by Rembrandt, about 15 by 18 inches (38 cm × 46 cm), similar to his 1653 engraving of The Three Crosses. It has been described by Christie's as "at the summit of the western printmaking tradition".
Description
The print depicts an episode from the Passion of Jesus in which Pontius Pilate presents Jesus to the people, saying "ecce homo" ("behold the man"), offering to free either Jesus or the notorious criminal Barabbas, and asks the crowd to choose between them. The scene echoes contemporary judicial practice in the Netherlands, in which magistrates bearing a staff of office would present a condemned criminal to the public from a raised balcony or platform. The building in the background resembles the new Town Hall in Amsterdam by Jacob van Campen, completed in 1655 and now the Royal Palace of Amsterdam.
The main figures are on a platform above the crowd, in front of a dark archway. Accompanied by armed guards, Pilate stands with a long staff, wearing an oriental turban and long gown, gesturing to the two prisoners who stand bound to the right. To the left is a scribe and youth with an ewer of water, ready for Pilate to wash his hands. Niches in the building behind them have allegorical sculptures of Justice and Fortitude. The building continues with windows and balconies on either side above arched doorways, one window perhaps occupied by Pilate's wife. Rembrandt has included a motley collection of characters in the crowd, with some Jewish elders observing to the right.
Rembrandt was inspired by Lucas van Leyden's 1510 etching of the same scene, of which he owned a copy. Rembrandt continued producing prints until the 1660s, but this was the last depicting the Passion.
States
Rembrandt's prints were made from a drypoint engraving on copper plate, and eight states are known. The first version, state i, measures 383 by 455 millimetres (15.1 in × 17.9 in), and the final version, state viii, is slightly shorter, measuring 358 by 455 centimetres (141 in × 179 in).
Save for the architecture to the top right, the first state was nearly complete. Only eight versions of the first state are known, printed on expensively imported yellowish Japanese paper. Seven are in public collections, at Kupferstichkabinett Berlin of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, the British Museum in London, the Morgan Library and Museum in New York, the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, two in Paris at the Dutuit collection at the Musée du Petit Palais and the collection of Edmond de Rothschild at the Musée du Louvre, and at the Graphische Sammlung Albertina in Vienna. The last remaining impression of the first state in private hands was sold at Christie's in July 2018 from the collection of the late Samuel Josefowitz for £2.2 million, setting a record for an Old Master print. No impressions of the second to fourth states are held privately.
Only minor changes were made in the next two states. The second state adds cross-hatched shading to the doorway to the left, and the third state adds similar shading to the right leg of the gesturing man on the left of the platform. The missing architecture to the top right is completed in the fourth state, with a balustrade added above the windows; at the same time, an inch (25 mm) was removed from the top of the print in this state, eliminating the architrave above the central building, allowing Rembrandt to print the whole composition on just a single sheet of paper: the first three impressions needed a thin strip of paper to be added along the top.
By the fifth state, several dozen impressions have been made and the soft copper plate was showing signs of wear, and some shading is added to the windows to the right. The wear was countered in the sixth state by significant reworking in some areas, including removing the crowd of figures in front of the central platform: only two impressions are known of this version. By the seventh state, two arches have been added to the front wall of the platform. Rembrandt signed and dated the seventh version, and then added more changes to the eighth and last version.
It is unclear why Rembrandt decided to print intermediate versions of the print, and indeed why they were printed on expensive imported paper. Usual practice was to take impression at each stage while the engraving developed on cheap paper which could be discarded, and then make several impressions of the completed version for sale. Only the last two states are signed and dated above the archway to the right of the central platform ("Rembrandt f. 1655"), suggesting he may have regarded the others as only intermediate stages or artist's proofs. However, Rembrandt may have been motivated by a commercial desire to sell rare limited editions to collectors. Arnold Houbraken noted in 1718 that Rembrandt would make small changes so he could sell prints as new designs.
Gallery
- Version at the Saint Louis Art Museum (state ii)
- Version at the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (inv. RP-P-1975-1) (state iii)
- Version at the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (state v)
- Version at the British Museum, London (state vi)
- Version at the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (inv RP-P-1962-121) (state vii)
See also
References
- Christie's Old Masters – London, 9 July 2018, Rehs Galleries, Inc
- Rembrandt, "Christ presented to the people" ('Ecce Homo'), Christie's, 5 July 2018
- Christie's auction catalogue, 5 July 2018
- The culmination of an obsession: Rembrandt's Ecce Homo, Christie's, 6 July 2018
- Record for a Rembrandt print at Christie's Old Master sale, Antiques Trade Gazette, 6 July 2018
- Rembrandt in detail, National Gallery, London
- Rijksmuseum: Christ Presented to the People (Ecce Homo), state iii • state viii
- British Museum: state i • state iii • state iii • state iv • state iv • state vi
- Metropolitan Museum of Art: state ii • state iv • state viii
- Christ presented to the people: oblong plate, state v, Art Gallery of New South Wales
- Christ Presented to the People, Rembrandt, 1655, Google Arts & Culture, from the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen
- Christ Presented to the People, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen
- Christ Presented to the People (Ecce Homo), Art Fund, from the Scottish National Gallery
- Ecce Homo: Christ Presented to the People, National Galleries Scotland, state v
- Morgan Library and Museum
- state i • CORSAIR Online Collection Catalog
- state viii • CORSAIR Online Collection Catalog
- v
- t
- e
- The Senses (1624–25)
- The Stoning of Saint Stephen (1625)
- Suffer little children to come unto me (1620s)
- History Painting (1626)
- Balaam and the Ass (1626)
- The Baptism of the Eunuch (1626)
- Bust of a Man Wearing a Gorget and Plumed Beret (1626)
- Tobit and Anna with the Kid (c. 1626)
- The Flight into Egypt (1627)
- The Parable of the Rich Fool (1627)
- The Artist in his Studio (1628)
- Samson and Delilah (1629–30)
- Anna and the Blind Tobit (c. 1630)
- The Raising of Lazarus (c. 1630–1632)
- Andromeda Chained to the Rocks (1631)
- The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp (1631)
- Christ with a Staff (1631)
- Christ on the Cross (1631)
- Old Man with a Gold Chain (c. 1631)
- Philosopher in Meditation (1632)
- The Abduction of Europa (1632)
- Adoration of the Magi (1632–1633)
- The Shipbuilder and his Wife (1633)
- The Storm on the Sea of Galilee (1633) 2
- A Lady and Gentleman in Black (1633)
- Raising of the Cross (1633)
- Descent from the Cross (1633)
- Diana Bathing with her Nymphs with Actaeon and Callisto (1634)
- Flora (1634)
- Artemisia (1634)
- Pendant portraits of Maerten Soolmans and Oopjen Coppit (1634)
- Descent from the Cross (1634)
- Belshazzar's Feast (1635)
- Minerva (1635)
- The Prodigal Son in the Brothel (c. 1635)
- Raising of the Cross (study) (c. 1635)
- The Rape of Ganymede (1635)
- The Entombment of Christ (1635)
- Samson Threatening His Father-In-Law (1635)
- The Standard Bearer (1636)
- Danaë (1636)
- The Blinding of Samson (1636)
- Landscape with Arched Bridge (c. 1636-1637)
- The Preacher Eleazar Swalmius (1637)
- The Archangel Raphael Leaving Tobias' Family (1637)
- The Stone Bridge (1637)
- The Wedding Feast of Samson (1638)
- Landscape with the Good Samaritan (1638)
- Still Life with Peacocks (c. 1639)
- The Girl in a Picture Frame (1641)
- The Scholar at the Lectern (1641)
- The Night Watch (1642)
- Concord of the State (1642)
- David and Jonathan (1642)
- Boaz and Ruth (1643)
- The Woman Taken in Adultery (1644)
- Joseph's Dream (1645)
- The Holy Family with Angels (1645)
- The Mill (1645–1648)
- Abraham Serving the Three Angels (1646)
- Susanna and the Elders (1647)
- Head of Christ (1648)
- The Kitchen Maid (1651)
- Descent from the Cross (1650–1652)
- Saul and David (c. 1652) 1
- Aristotle with a Bust of Homer (1653)
- A Woman Bathing in a Stream (1654)
- Bathsheba at Her Bath (1654)
- The Polish Rider (1655) 1
- Slaughtered Ox (1655)
- Pallas Athene (c. 1655)
- The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Deijman (1656)
- Jacob Blessing the Sons of Joseph (1656)
- Courtesan at her Mirror (1657)
- Saint Bartholomew (1657)
- Moses Breaking the Tablets of the Law (1659)
- Ahasuerus and Haman at the Feast of Esther (1660)
- The Denial of Saint Peter (1660)
- Titus as a Monk (1660)
- The Conspiracy of Claudius Civilis (1661)
- Saint Matthew and the Angel (1661)
- Syndics of the Drapers' Guild (1662)
- Homer Dictating his Verses (1663)
- The Jewish Bride (1664)
- Lucretia (1664) 1
- David and Uriah (c. 1665)
- Young Woman with a Lapdog (1665)
- Lucretia (1666)
- The Return of the Prodigal Son (1662–1669)
- Landscape with a Castle
- Portrait of Nicolaes Ruts (1631)
- Portrait of a Man (1632)
- Portrait of a Woman (1632)
- Portrait of Jacob de Gheyn III (1632)
- Aeltje Pietersdr Uylenburgh (1632)
- Portrait of a Man Rising from His Chair (1633)
- Oval Portrait of a Woman (1633)
- Portrait of Marten Soolmans (1634)
- Portrait of Oopjen Coppit (1634)
- Portrait of Petronella Buys (1635)
- A Polish Nobleman (1637)
- Portrait of Maria Trip (1639)
- Portrait of Jan Six (1654)
- Portrait of Catharina Hooghsaet (1657)
- Portrait of a Man (1657)
- Portrait of a Man with Arms Akimbo (1658)
- Portrait of Dirck van Os (c. 1662)
- Self-Portrait with Dishevelled Hair (1628)
- Rembrandt Laughing (1628)
- Self-Portrait (1629)
- Self-Portrait in a Gorget (c.1629)
- Portrait of a Young Man with a Golden Chain (1635) (disputed)
- Self-Portrait Wearing a White Feathered Bonnet (1635)
- Self-Portrait at the Age of 34 (1640)
- Self-Portrait (1652)
- Self-Portrait in a Black Beret and Gold Chain (1654)
- Self-Portrait (1658)
- Self-Portrait with Beret and Turned-Up Collar (1659)
- Self-Portrait (1660)
- Self-Portrait as the Apostle Paul (1662)
- Self-Portrait as Zeuxis Laughing (1662)
- Self-Portrait with Two Circles (1665–1669)
- Self-Portrait (c. 1669)
- Self-Portrait at the Age of 63 (1669)
(including etchings)
- Joseph and Potiphar's Wife (1634)
- Bearded Old Man (1634)
- River with Trees (1634)
- The Artist and his Model (1639)
- The Death of the Virgin (1639)
- The Mill (1641)
- The Three Trees (1643)
- The State Bed (1646)
- Portrait of Jan Six (1647)
- Hundred Guilder Print (1647–1649)
- Conus Marmoreus (1650)
- Goldweigher's Field (1651)
- Doctor Fautrieus (1652)
- Descent from the Cross by Torchlight (1652)
- The Three Crosses (1653)
- The Virgin and Child with a Cat (1654)
- Christ Presented to the People (1655)
- Mughal drawings
Rembrandt
- Bibliography of Rembrandt
- Cultural depictions of Rembrandt
- Rembrandt (1936 film)
- Rembrandt (1940 film)
- Rembrandt (1942 film)
- Rembrandt: A Self-Portrait (1954 documentary film)
- Rembrandt fecit 1669 (1977 film)
- The Anatomy Lesson (1995 novel)
- Rembrandt (1999 film)
- Stealing Rembrandt (2003 film)
- Nightwatching (2007 film )
- Rembrandt's J'Accuse (2008 documentary)
- I Am Rembrandt's Daughter (2008 novel)
- The Rembrandt Affair (2010 novel)
- Rembrandt, Iowa
- Rembrandtplein
- Rembrandtpark
- Rembrandt (crater)
- Rembrandt (train)
- Vereniging Rembrandt (foundation)
- 1 Contested
- 2 Stolen in 1990