Medea: Or the Marriage of Jason and Creusa Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn

A very fine impression of New Hollstein’s third state (of five), before the addition of the verses in the lower margin, printing with rich burr at the foot of Medea and along the lower edge of the drapery at left, and with remarkable depth in the dark passages below. Hinterding records only eight impressions of this third state. Rembrandt created illustrations for only three books, of which Medea was the second. The etching was commissioned by his friend and patron Jan Six for the title page of his tragedy 'Medea', which was first performed at the Amsterdam Stadsschouwburg in October 1647 and subsequently published in 1648 and 1679. Only the fourth state of the etching was used as the frontispiece to the first edition, while the fifth state appeared in deluxe copies of the second edition. Impressions of the first three states, before the addition of the signature, date, monogram and verses in the lower margin, are rare. For his illustration, Rembrandt chose the wedding scene, although Six did not include it in his adaptation of the tragedy, perhaps because it allowed the artist to encapsulate the impending catastrophe in a single image. The viewer’s gaze is guided by the sweeping staircase from the wedding couple towards Juno, goddess of marriage, seated above. Medea, Jason’s abandoned first wife, appears ominously in the shadows below, holding a dagger and poised to fulfil her vow of revenge. Through this complex, circular composition and the dramatic contrast between the illuminated wedding ceremony above and Medea concealed in darkness below, Rembrandt evokes the full scope of the tragedy. – A few minute foxing spots. Verso with two small areas of surface rubbing and old adhesive strips in the upper corners. Otherwise in good condition. | 1606 Leiden - Amsterdam 1669 | 15.-18. Jahrhundert | Druckgrafik | Nummer: 26x1687 | Provenance: Baron Carlo Marochetti (1805–1867), Paris and London, with his handwritten collector’s mark verso (Lugt 392); John Whitcomb Bayley (1787–1869), London, Cheltenham, Italy and Paris (Lugt 1412); Johann Carl Diedrich Hebich (1818–1891), Hamburg, with his collector’s mark (Lugt 1250); Unidentified collector’s blindstamp ‘D’ at lower right, recorded on impressions by Rembrandt (Lugt 711a); Marion Blacklock Miller, by descent to her estate; Sotheby’s, New York, 3 May 1996, lot 164.

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