The Angel Appearing to the Shepherds

Rembrandt (Rembrandt van Rijn)

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Here, Rembrandt shows how the herdsmen in Luke 2:8–20 were confronted in the middle of the night by a large winged angel, lit by the glory of God, who came to tell of the birth of Christ. This work presents Rembrandt’s visualization of the scene, in which the serene angel radiates calm and blessing in the clouds, while on the ground the beasts scatter in total panic and the herdsmen recoil in terror. To create this etching, Rembrandt worked from the dark areas into the light of the foreground. Although he had painted night scenes before, this was his first attempt at duplicating the effects in etching.

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