Apr 28, 2022 - Sale 2602

Sale 2602 - Lot 123

Price Realized: $ 23,750
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 10,000 - $ 15,000
REMBRANDT VAN RIJN
Medea: or the Marriage of Jason and Creusa.

Etching, 1648. 230x178 mm; 9 1/2x7 inches. 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). With thread margins or trimmed on the plate mark. A very good, richly-inked impression with strong contrasts and little to no sign of wear.

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. Bartsch 112; Biörklund 48-E; Hollstein (White and Boon) 112; New Hollstein 241.