Can Jews still embrace Rembrandt — even if his love for the Jewish people is only a myth?
As a new volume attests, the Dutch painter's philosemitic reputation may have been greatly exaggerated
Rembrandt
The Latest
-
Culture -
Culture This Painting Was Stolen 200 Years Ago – That’s Why We See It Differently
There are two great paintings titled “Return of the Prodigal Son,” one by Rembrandt and one by Bartolomé Esteban Murillo – neither of which is housed in its painter’s country of origin. The Rembrandt version is housed in the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, while the Murillo is housed in the National Gallery in Washington D.C….
-
Culture What Rembrandt Painted When He Painted Jews
Prior to 1629, when the 23-year-old Rembrandt painted “Judas Returning the Thirty Pieces of Silver,” the scene, the culmination of the biblical episode long associated with anti-Semitism that has come to epitomize greediness and selling out, had been treated only a handful of times in art. The narrative, which appears only in the book of…
-
Slideshows Rembrandt and the Jews
-
Breaking News Who Stole Rembrandt’s ‘Sea of Galilee’ From Boston’s Gardner Museum?
The FBI believes it has identified the thieves who pulled off the 1990 theft of 13 artworks from Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, which stands as the costliest art theft in U.S. history. Officials, who did not identify the suspects, said on Monday they believed the artworks, which are valued at a total of $500…
-
Culture Rembrandt Chose Jewish Models To Depict a More Realistic Jesus
Sometime in the mid-to-late 1640s or early 1650s, a young Jewish man — probably of Spanish-Portuguese descent — seems to have taken what would likely have been a short walk from his home in Amsterdam’s Jewish quarter to Jodenbreestraat (“Jewish Broad Street”) 4, where Rembrandt van Rijn lived. Inside the three-story home, which Rembrandt purchased…
-
The Schmooze Slideshow: Paintings That Hang in the Balance
As you stand in the Dolby Chadwick Gallery in San Francisco, you can’t be sure if the figures in Joshua Meyer’s multi-layered oil paintings are emerging toward you or receding away into a complex sea of colors. That lack of certainty suits the artist just fine, as he considers his paintings to reside in “a…
Explore
Most Popular
- 1
News Your complete guide to Trump’s Jewish advisers and pro-Israel cabinet
- 2
Fast Forward Why neo-Nazis marched in Ohio this weekend, and almost every weekend in the US
- 3
Fast Forward Trump AG nominee Matt Gaetz has left a trail of antisemitic comments
- 4
Opinion The group behind Project 2025 has a plan to protect Jews. It will do the opposite.
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward More than 55 Jewish groups come out against terrorism bill that could threaten nonprofits
-
Fast Forward Why the Senate’s Israel vote matters, as Democrats divide on the Jewish state
-
Fast Forward Jessica Tisch, Jewish public servant, appointed as commissioner of NYPD
-
Fast Forward ‘A sense of wariness’ for many Jews when they see keffiyehs in public
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
