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, variant 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 on the reverse (Lugt 2100b). A very fine lifetime impression of New Hollstein’s first state (of four), printed with excellent contrast 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 Virgin’s left foot lies a snake—traditionally a symbol of evil—which is 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. On the reverse, there is a tiny area of paper thinning; the paper is minimally wavy. Otherwise in good condition. Taxation: subject to regular taxation (VAT: Regular Taxation).