The Circumcision
Rembrandt·1661
Historical Context
Rembrandt's Circumcision (1661) at the National Gallery of Art depicts the ceremony on the eighth day after Christ's birth when he was circumcised and given his name — the first shedding of blood that prefigured the Passion. The subject combined the Jewish ritual that marked Christ's entry into the covenant of Abraham with the theological significance of his name: 'Jesus' — 'God saves' — spoken for the first time in this ceremony. Rembrandt's treatment, characteristically lit from a single source in the composition's dark interior, renders the ancient ceremony with the warm, human intimacy of a scene that is simultaneously theologically vast and domestically particular.
Technical Analysis
The scene is illuminated by warm, concentrated light that draws the eye to the central figures. Rembrandt's late brushwork is broad and expressive, with thick impasto in the highlights and thin, transparent shadows creating depth.
Provenance
Lodewijck van Ludick [1607-1669], Amsterdam, by 1662.[1] Probably Ferdinand Bol [1616-1680], by 1669.[2] Probably Isaak van den Blooken, The Netherlands, by 1707; (his sale, Jan Pietersz. Zomer, Amsterdam, 11 May 1707, no. 1). Duke of Ancaster; (his sale, March 1724, no.18); Andrew Hay; (his sale, Cock, London, 14-15 February 1745, no. 47);[3] John Spencer, 1st earl Spencer [1734-1783], Althorp, Northamptonshire; by inheritance through the earls Spencer to John Poyntz, 5th earl Spencer [1835-1910], Althorp;[4] (Arthur J. Sulley & Co., London); Peter A.B. Widener, Lynnewood Hall, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, by 1912; inheritance from Estate of Peter A.B. Widener by gift through power of appointment of Joseph E. Widener, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania; gift 1942 to NGA. [1] On 18 August 1662 Rembrandt and Van Ludick drew up a contract to address the artist's debts, in the second part of which is revealed that sometime earlier Rembrandt had sold the painting to Van Ludick. See: Walter L. Strauss and Marjon van der Meulen, _The Rembrandt Documents_, New York, 1979: doc. 1662/6, 499–502; Paul Crenshaw, _Rembrandt's bankruptcy: the artist, his patrons, and the art market in the seventeenth-century_, Cambridge and New York, 2006: 30, 84, 107, 179 n. 200. [2] Albert Blankert, _Ferdinand Bol (1616-1680): Rembrandt's Pupil_, translated by Ina Rike, Doornspijk, 1982: 76-77, no. 14 in an inventory of 8 October 1669. [3] For the Ancaster and Hay sales, see Frank Simpson, "Dutch Paintings in England before 1760," _The Burlington Magazine_ 95 (January 1953): 41. The Duke of Ancaster who sold the painting in 1724 would have been Peregrine Bertie, 2nd duke of Ancaster and Kesteven (1686-1742); it is possible he was selling paintings that had been in the collection of his father, Robert Bertie, the 1st duke, who had died the year before (he lived 1660-1723). [4] The painting is listed in Spencer collection catalogues and inventories in 1746, 1802, and 1822, and was lent by the earls Spencer to exhibitions in 1868, 1898, and 1899.
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