The old man kneels, looks up, and holds the child, whose head gives off light.
Bible in art · Luke
The Presentation in the Temple in the Dark Manner
Rembrandt · c. 1654
National Gallery of Art, Washington
Rembrandt made this small etching around 1654, late in his career as a printmaker. Most of the plate is covered with dense cross-hatching, so the figures seem to come out of the dark — prints in this style are often called his “dark manner”.
Old Simeon kneels with the child in his arms and looks up. Above him towers a priest with a staff and an enormous headdress, and the mother waits in the shadows at the left.
From the text
- Simeon, “righteous and devout”, in Jerusalem (Luke 2:25)
- “Led by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts” (Luke 2:27)
- The parents bringing in the child (Luke 2:27)
- “Simeon took Him in his arms and blessed God” (Luke 2:28)
The artist’s own
- A towering priest with staff and jewelled headdress — the Gospel names no priest here
- A vast, dim temple with columns and an arch
- Light shining from the child
- Simeon kneeling
Details
Simeon
The priest
A tall figure with a long staff and a huge ornamented headdress stands above them.
In rich robes
A second man in a patterned robe and turban sits beside the priest and bends to look.
The parents
A hooded woman with lowered eyes, and a man’s face in the shadow behind her.
The temple
A column and an arch loom out of the darkness.
Rembrandt van Rijn, Dutch, 1606–1669. National Gallery of Art, Washington (Rosenwald Collection, 1951.12.1) · Etching and drypoint · NGA Open Access: "Images of these works are available free of charge for any use, commercial or non-commercial, under Creative Commons Zero (CC0)." (NGA open data: published_images.csv openaccess = 1)