Judas Repentant, Returning the Pieces of Silver | |
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![]() Judas Repentant | |
Artist | Rembrandt |
Year | 1629 |
Type | painting |
Medium | oil on wood |
Subject | A repentant Judas returns the thirty pieces of silver to the Temple. |
Dimensions | 79 cm× 102 cm(31 in× 40 in) |
Location | Mulgrave Castle, Lythe, N Yorks |
Owner | private collection |
Judas Returning the Thirty Pieces of Silver is a painting by Rembrandt, now in Mulgrave Castle in Lythe, North Yorkshire. [1] It depicts the story of Matthew 27:3: "Then Judas, which had betrayed him, when he saw that he was condemned, repented himself, and brought again the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders".
Made in 1629 while he was working in Leiden, the painting is one of Rembrandt's earliest works. About 1630, Constantijn Huygens wrote an analysis of the figure of Judas in it, arguing that Rembrandt had surpassed the painters from antiquity, as well as the great sixteenth-century Italian artists when it came to the representation of emotions expressed by figures that act in a history painting. [2] [3]
Because of the notoriety of Judas' betrayal of Jesus, this event in the gospels was rarely, if ever, portrayed before and this is the only instance of Rembrandt painting this scene.[ citation needed ] Here Judas is portrayed as a wretched and remorseful figure. Bloodstains on Judas' head show he has torn his hair out. [4] Huygens used the words "maddened" and "devoid of hope" of Judas, and Rembrandt illustrates this with Judas' wringing hands and pained grimace. [ citation needed ] The high priest has dramatically turned away from Judas and the other elders seem at a loss what to do. The one reading a codex seems to be counting up the pieces of silver (there are 30). Nobody meets the eye of anyone else: a technique used by Edward Hopper centuries later. [ citation needed ]
Judas Iscariot was a disciple and one of the original Twelve Apostles of Jesus Christ. According to all four canonical gospels, Judas betrayed Jesus to the Sanhedrin in the Garden of Gethsemane by kissing him on the cheek and addressing him as "master" to reveal his identity in the darkness to the crowd who had come to arrest him. His name is often used synonymously with betrayal or treason.
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Thirty pieces of silver was the price for which Judas Iscariot betrayed Jesus, according to an account in the Gospel of Matthew 26:15 in the New Testament. Before the Last Supper, Judas is said to have gone to the chief priests and agreed to hand over Jesus in exchange for 30 silver coins, and to have attempted to return the money afterwards, filled with remorse.
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Susanna and the Elders is a painting by the Dutch artist Rembrandt from the Baroque period. It is an oil on panel painting completed in the year 1647. It depicts the story of Susanna, a Deuterocanonical text from the book of Daniel in the Bible. The painting is currently housed at the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin.
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