Prophetess Anna in the Temple

Prophetess Anna in the Temple from 1649 in the National Galleries of Scotland depicts the aged woman described in Luke 2:36-38 who recognized the infant Jesus at his presentation in the Temple and began to speak of him to all who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem. Anna, who had lived in the Temple serving God through fasting and prayer since her husband's death seven decades earlier, was for Rembrandt an ideal subject: an elderly woman of profound religious devotion, absorbed in scripture and prayer, whose interior life was the true subject of the painting rather than any external narrative action. The National Galleries of Scotland hold the work in a collection that includes other significant Dutch Golden Age paintings acquired through Scottish royal and aristocratic collecting over several centuries.

Rembrandt renders the prophetess with gentle, warm light that models her aged features with sympathy, using a restrained palette that focuses attention on the spiritual contemplation in her expression.