REMBRANDT VAN RIJN Medea: or the Marriage of Jason and Creusa.
Etching, 1648. 230x178 mm; 9½x7 inches, narrow margins. Biörklund's fifth state (of 5); Usticke's fifth state (of 5); White and Boon's fifth state (of 5); New Hollstein's fifth state (of 5). Bartsch 112; Biörklund 48-E; Hollstein (White and Boon) 112; New Hollstein 241.
Provenance: Karl de Couple, Vienna, with the ink stamp (Lugt 2009, verso); Viscount Philogène de Montfort, with the ink stamp and inscription (Lugt 1035 and 1136, verso); Lucien Monod, Paris, with the ink stamp (Lugt 5950, verso).
According to the Dallas Museum of Art, there is an impression of this subject in the collection, "The story depicted in this etching revolves around Jason, the leader of the Argonauts, and his abduction of Creusa, the beautiful, young and wealthy daughter of Creon, King of Corinth. When Jason's wife, the sorceress Medea, learns of Jason's plans to marry Creusa, she seeks revenge by poisoning Creusa and her father and killing her own two sons. In this illustration, Rembrandt took considerable artistic liberties as he invented a scene that is not described in any line of the play, Medea: or the Marriage of Jason and Creusa. Set in a church, the subject might be mistaken for a Biblical scene if it were not for the female figure in the foreground, who holds Medea's trademark weapons of a dagger and a container of poison.
