263 - Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn (1606 Leiden - Amsterdam 1669), The Virgin and Child with the Cat and the Snake .

Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn (1606 Leiden - Amsterdam 1669), The Virgin and Child with the Cat and the Snake . Etching on laid paper, watermark Foolscap with Seven-Pointed Collar (cf. Hinterding, vatiant D.a. (?)). (1654). 10.5 x 15.3 cm (sheet). Bartsch 63; White/Boon 63; Hinterding/Rutgers (The New Hollstein) 278 I (of IV). Provenance: Paul Mathey (1844–1929), Paris, with his collector’s stamp verso (Lugt 2100b). A very fine lifetime impression of New Hollstein’s first state (of four), printing with excellent contrasts and with the fine vertical scratches to the right of the signature and in the upper windowpanes clearly visible, and before the addition of the two dots in the lower right corner. With small margins around the platemark. Rembrandt sets this intimate depiction of the Holy Family in a seventeenth-century Dutch interior. The Virgin sits with the Christ Child beside an open fire, while Joseph looks on through the window behind her and a cat playfully tugs at the hem of her skirt. Beneath the Virgins left foot lies a snake, traditionally a symbol of evil, here subdued and rendered powerless. By combining a familiar domestic setting with this symbolic detail, Rembrandt transforms the biblical subject into a scene of everyday intimacy while retaining its deeper religious significance. – With a few minute brown spots. Verso with a tiny area of paper thinning, the paper minimally wavy. Otherwise in good condition. Taxation: regelbesteuert (VAT: Regular Taxation).