REMBRANDT Harmenszoon van Rijn
(b. 1606, Leiden, d. 1669, Amsterdam)

Joseph telling his dreams

1638
Etching, second state of three, 110 x 83 mm
Teylers Museum, Haarlem

Catalogue number: Bartsch 37.

Images of holy people and of stories from the Gospels were the object of veneration that the Reformation was intended to ban. Biblical heroes for which no cult existed were found in the Jewish Bible. The patriarchs Abraham and Joseph, Samson the judge, King David, Queen Esther, the pious old and young Tobit: this cast of characters provided Rembrandt with material for moral dramas throughout his life.