Rembrandt van Rijn (Dutch, 1606-1669) The Descent from the Cross by torchlight, 1654 Etching and drypoint on laid paper, trimmed to the platemark 8-1/4 x 6-1/4 inches (21.0 x 15.9 cm) Bears unidentified collector's mark lower right, verso: G Inscribed verso: Str. / 1333 New Hollstein's first state (of 3) Property from an important Connecticut collection PROVENANCE: Sessler collection, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Private collection, San Marino; Swann Galleries, New York, May 1, 2002, lot 75 (cover lot); Acquired by the current owner from the above. LITERATURE: Bartsch, 83; Hind, 280; New Hollstein, 280. A brilliant, early impression, richly-inked overall with the velvety burr consistent with the earliest impressions of this print, notably on the chest of the figure pulling down the cloth from the cross, on Christ's beard, on the back of the figure supporting Christ's body and on the vertical lines in the cross to the left of the torch; with sharp and squared plate edges. During 1654, Rembrandt produced three religious prints which possess a great sense of space: The Descent from the Cross, by torchlight, The Entombment, and Christ at Emmaus. In the first two, he crowded the figures so closely together that large areas of the composition remained unarticulated and in utter darkness. All that breaks through these areas of heavily-hatched gloom are strategic glints of expressive gestures. A prime example of this occurs in The Descent from the Cross; a single plaintive hand stretches out helplessly towards the head of Christ, thereby catching a stream of light. It belongs to the man below the outcropping on which Christ was crucified: he strains upward as if to receive Christ's body should it fall. The hand catching the light directs all attention to Christ's head, dead eyes open and illuminated, but unseeing. Some torchlight collects on the linen spread out over the bier in the immediate foreground, presented front and center, parallel to the picture plane, ready to receive Christ's body which as yet half sinks away into the darkness of the night. Notably, Rembrandt signed this print on the shroud. By the time he etched the following episode in the Passion story, The Entombment, nearly all the light in his image is extinguished. Through his powerful manipulation of the etching medium, Rembrandt was able to underscore the tragedy of Christ's dying on the cross as an event of impenetrable darkness, without triumph, without light. HID03101062020 © 2020 Heritage Auctions | All Rights Reserved