The Story
Christ Preaching ('La Petite Tombe'), c. 1652. Rembrandt van Rijn (Dutch, 1606–1669). Etching, drypoint, and burin; sheet: 15.8 x 21 cm (6 1/4 x 8 1/4 in.); platemark: 15.5 x 20.7 cm (6 1/8 x 8 1/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of The Print Club of Cleveland in honor of William Mathewson Milliken, 1958.306
Created in 1652 during the Baroque period, this work belongs firmly within the religion & mythology tradition. Rembrandt van Rijn worked at a moment when the rivalry between Catholic Baroque drama and Protestant restraint reshaped what a painting could mean. Every gesture, fabric, and gleam of light was decoded by contemporary viewers like a private language.
Executed in etching, drypoint, and burin, measuring Sheet: 15.8 x 21 cm (6 1/4 x 8 1/4 in.); Platemark: 15.5 x 20.7 cm (6 1/8 x 8 1/8 in.), the surface rewards close looking. Rembrandt van Rijn builds the composition through layered glazes and a tightly controlled palette, letting cool shadows recede so that the warm, lit passages step forward. The brushwork shifts from the precise to the almost dissolved — a hallmark of mature Baroque practice.
“A silence so complete it becomes its own witness.”
