The Jewish Bride

The Jewish Bride ( oil on canvas, 121.5 × 166.5 cm, Dutch: Het Joodse bruidje ) is a painting by Rembrandt van Rijn, which was completed in 1667. The painting is a permanent exhibit at the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam.

Image description

Shown is a dark, vague space in which an elegantly dressed man and a woman are. The man has his arm around the woman and holds out his hand to her chest. She touched his hand with her ​​fingertips. Both look forward into space, apparently in deep thought. In the background, next to the woman a plant can be seen in a pot. Behind her is an architectural fragment. Lightest the two persons are painted, their clothes and their bodies are detailed and accurately represented. The more the view from the center away, the softer, less accurate and more fluent brushwork. The choice of color is predominantly brown and gold tones, as well as the intense red in the dress of the woman that conveys warmth and closeness.

The painting received its current name in the early 19th century, when an Amsterdam art collector the representation as the scene of a Jewish father who gives his daughter on her wedding day a necklace, looking at her. However, this interpretation no longer agrees with the doctrine, the identity of the pair is uncertain. This uncertainty is exacerbated by a lack of oral traditions, so that only remains the universal theme of two lovers. The speculation about the identity of the sitter rich of Rembrandt's son Titus and his bride, on the Amsterdam poet Miguel de Barrios and his wife up to various pairs of the Old Testament such as Abraham and Sarah or Boaz and Ruth. Most probable is, however, about the presentation of Isaac and Rebekah, as described in Genesis 26.8 EU. This is supported by a drawing by Rembrandt on the same subject.