Andromeda Chained to the Rocks

Rembrandt painted Andromeda Chained to the Rocks around 1630, a mythological nude that demonstrates his radical departure from the classicizing ideal of feminine beauty that dominated European academic painting. The painting's small scale (34 x 24.5 cm) makes Andromeda an intimate, vulnerable figure rather than the heroic nude of Italian tradition; she is a frightened young woman rather than a goddess, and her body is naturalistic rather than ideal. The contrast with Rubens's celebrated Andromeda paintings — where the heroine is a classical goddess of heroic proportions — could hardly be more pointed. Rembrandt's insistence on observed rather than idealized female nudity was a consistent source of controversy throughout his career, generating criticism from theorists who argued that painting should elevate rather than document physical reality. The Mauritshuis's holding of this early nude alongside other Rembrandt masterworks creates a context that illuminates the full range of his approach to the human figure.

Rembrandt's unflinching naturalism is evident in the goose-pimpled flesh and the reddened marks left by the chains on Andromeda's wrists, a startling departure from the smooth, idealized nudes of the Italian tradition.