23

Copy After Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669)
Christ appearing to the Magdalene as a gardener (John 20:14-17). Panel, 62 × 51 cm.

The Netherlands Office for Fine Arts, inv.nr.NK 1648 (on loan to Museum Amstelkring, Amsterdam). Before the war in the Katz Gallery, Dieren.

The original, in Buckingham Palace, is dated 1638. If one draws a distinction between Rembrandt's 'public' paintings, which were known to a good many art lovers, and the 'private' ones which disappeared into a closed collection or crossed the border as soon as they were made, the original of this painting certainly belongs to the former category.

This poem by Jeremias de Decker, from the early 1650s, is attached to the back of the painting in Buckingham Palace:

When I read St. John's description of this scene
And turn to see it in this splendid painting, then I ask myself if brush has ever followed pen As aptly, or dead paint so near to life has been.

Christ seems to say 'Marie, don't tremble, I am here,
It's me. Your master's free of Death's authority'
Believing, though not yet with all her heart and mind, she
Seems poised between her joy and grief, her hope and fear.

As art dictates, the tomb's a tall and rocky tower,
Rich with shade, thus lending sightliness and power To all the rest.
Because, friend Rembrandt, I once saw This panel undergo your deft and expert touch, I wished to rhyme a verse on your most gifted brush, To add praise with my ink to the paints with which you draw.

As in Vondel's verse of 1652 on the portrait of the late Leonard Marius (cat.nr.20), the poet compares writing – the Bible text – with pictorial depiction – Rembrandt's representation of that text. He pays Rembrandt the great compliment of having followed his text as well as any artist ever had. To us, this may sound like scant praise, but in the seventeenth century poetry stood in much higher esteem than painting. And the Bible, after all, is the Bible.

Schwartz 1985, pp. 182, 340-341. Schatborn 1985, pp. 50-51.