The Entombment

Rembrandt (Rembrandt van Rijn)

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The startling difference between this impression and the impression of the first state (20.46.17) has less to do with the many hatched lines Rembrandt added to the composition in the second state than with the veil of ink he left on the copperplate as it was printed. This ink turns the previously brightly lit scene into a dark one in which only the faces and hands of the central figures are illuminated. By initially leaving this tone on the copperplate and wiping away the ink only where he wanted to leave touches of light, Rembrandt printed both the etched lines and the layer of ink left on the surface. As a result of this exceptional painting of the plate before printing, each impression Rembrandt pulled was unique.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.

Metropolitan Museum of Art