The Adoration of the Magi

Rembrandt's 1632 Adoration of the Magi in the Hermitage belongs to his early Amsterdam period, when his ambitions in large-scale multi-figure biblical narrative were at their most expansive. The Adoration was among the most frequently painted subjects in European art, giving any painter who tackled it an implicit invitation to measure his achievement against famous predecessors — Rubens's Adoration in Antwerp Cathedral was a recent benchmark — and the young Rembrandt accepted this challenge. His 1632 version reflects the influence of Rubens's vigorous figural compositions and his own absorption of Italian theatrical lighting, but the characteristic Rembrandt quality of individual characterization is already present in the faces of the witnesses gathered around the cradle. The Hermitage acquired the painting as part of Catherine the Great's systematic purchases of Northern European art, which transformed the imperial gallery into one of the world's great collections within a generation of serious acquisition.

A strong diagonal of light from the upper left illuminates the Virgin and Child at the centre while the peripheral figures — soldiers, attendants, the Magi — recede into warm shadow. Rembrandt's paint handling is already bold, with thick impasto on lit surfaces and transparent glazes in the shadows.