Head of Saint Matthew

Rembrandt's 1662 Head of Saint Matthew is a late head study of an evangelist figure, related to but not identical with his Saint Matthew and the Angel (Louvre, 1661). These apostle head studies represent the final evolution of his figure painting — deeply modelled, psychologically intense, technically free. The 1662 date places it among the last decade of his output, when he had stripped his art to its most essential elements. Saint Matthew was associated with tax-collecting before his conversion, making him a humanly complex, fallible figure well suited to Rembrandt's interest in the spiritual lives of ordinary people.

The aged face is built up with Rembrandt's late impasto technique — multiple layers applied with palette knife and brush, the surface deeply textured. Warm golden-brown light models the deeply furrowed brow, the beard painted with a dry, dragged brush. The background is nearly formless dark.