Rembrandt's Jews by Steven Nadler

Author:Steven Nadler [Nadler, Steven]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Published: 2003-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

FIGURE 18. Rembrandt, four etchings for Menasseh ben Israel, Piedra Gloriosa, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. Photo: Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.

The result of the collaboration is a striking set of images. Jacob, his head on a large stone, rests peacefully halfway up a wide ladder (“the middle of which corresponds to Jerusalem”). The smiling, solicitous angels who are not climbing upward seem more concerned with ministering to him than with descending. A diminutive David, meanwhile, has already released his rock and hit the mark; the towering Goliath, taking up a large part of the left side of the print, begins his collapse to the ground in a heap of armor. The Philistine giant’s posture as he falls resembles that of the collapsing statue. And in Rembrandt’s illustration of Daniel’s vision, God himself, just below the open vault of heaven, towers over all and is surrounded by a host of angels. Before God stands a man—the Messiah—receiving his charge. Under the clouds that bear this divine load, in a darker realm, are the four beasts, led by the winged lion standing on its hind legs with its arms ferociously raised.

Menasseh must have been pleased with Rembrandt’s work. He included the illustrations in the first edition of the Piedra Gloriosa. Though the pictures are missing in a number of extant copies of the book, they are in Vossius’s own volume, still bound in its original cover in the Leiden University library. In a second edition, however, Rembrandt’s prints have been replaced by a different set of images. For some reason, four new illustrations were commissioned from the Jewish artist Salom Italia for the work (figure 19).

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