Simeon's song of praise

Simeon's Song of Praise from 1631 in the former collection of Willem V Prince of Orange Nassau depicts the aged Simeon's ecstatic recognition of the infant Jesus in the Temple — the moment when he speaks the Nunc Dimittis: 'Lord, now let your servant depart in peace, for my eyes have seen your salvation.' The subject gave Rembrandt an occasion to explore extremes of spiritual experience: an elderly man at the end of his life finally receiving the divine promise he had waited decades to see fulfilled. The 1631 date places this among his last Leiden works and among his first significant religious paintings, demonstrating even at this early stage the quality of spiritual intensity that would characterize his biblical subjects throughout his career. The painting belonged to the collection of Willem V of Orange, the last Stadholder, whose collection was seized by French forces in 1795 and became the nucleus of the Mauritshuis collection.

Rembrandt uses dramatic chiaroscuro to illuminate the holy infant and Simeon's rapturous face while the surrounding temple space recedes into shadow, creating a powerful focus on the moment of divine revelation.