Balaam and the Ass
Rembrandt·1626
Historical Context
Rembrandt painted Balaam and the Ass in 1626, one of his earliest known works, depicting the Old Testament story of the prophet whose donkey sees an angel invisible to its master. The painting shows the twenty-year-old Rembrandt already grappling with dramatic narrative and the supernatural elements that would characterize his biblical paintings. The ambitious scale and theatrical lighting demonstrate the young artist's aspiration to history painting. Now in the Musée Cognacq-Jay in Paris.
Technical Analysis
The young Rembrandt fills the canvas with dramatic action—the rearing donkey, the startled prophet, and the sword-wielding angel—in a style influenced by his teacher Pieter Lastman's busy, colorful narrative compositions.
Look Closer
- ◆Notice the rearing donkey at the center of the composition — the animal's terrified response to the angel it can see but Balaam cannot.
- ◆Look at the sword-wielding angel filling the upper portion of the canvas, a supernatural presence given physical weight and dramatic gesture.
- ◆Observe how the twenty-year-old Rembrandt already deploys dramatic lighting to separate the angelic from the earthly.
- ◆Find Balaam's startled expression: the prophet who speaks for God, suddenly confronted with divine authority he has been trying to circumvent.
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