The Angel appearing to the Shepherds

The Angel appearing to the Shepherds of 1634 is one of Rembrandt’s first religious etchings on a large scale. The present, very fine impression allows us to fully admire the many delightful elements of this richly varied composition: the angel and the little putti swirling in the sky around the Holy Spirit, almost invisible in the blinding light, and the stunned shepherds and their animals, fleeing in terror, all suddenly illuminated by the celestial apparition, while the rest of the scene, the two figures emerging from the cave at lower right, curious to see what’s causing the tumult, the distant landscape by night, the travellers down by the river with their fires reflected in the water, and the dense forest with a gnarled old tree and a palm at the edge, all fading into nocturnal twilight. The various parts of the composition each strike a very different tone: the angel does have a certain severity and grandeur about him, while the scene of the panic-stricken herdsmen and beasts is almost burlesque in its vivacity, in contrast with the quiet, lyrical feel of the distant landscape at night. Yet, Rembrandt brings it all together in a grand tableau. Much of the effect of this print relies on the rich, saturated blacks in the foreground, and the subtlest gradations of greys and blacks in the background scenery and the tiny highlights within it, such as the small light in the house on the bridge or the reflections of the campfire in the water. In later impressions, the darkest areas deteriorate to a patchy grey, while the landscape across the river becomes completely indistinct. In the present example, these different aspects are perfectly balanced and articulated.
Although undoubtedly early, this impression is a bit of a mystery, as it seems to differ in some tiny details of the distant landscape from all other impressions. For example, the tower on the horizon furthest to the right is usually quite slender, but much broader here. Also, the large central building on the hill appears to have a gabled roof, a detail not observed in other examples. Overall, the buildings on the hill seem more clearly articulated than in other impressions of any state, including the unique impression of the first state (British Museum, London; inv. no. F,4.80) and the two relevant impressions of the second state in Vienna and Amsterdam (Albertina, inv. no. DG1926/75; and Rijksmuseum, inv. no. RP-P-OB-84). The only other second state-impression, at the British Museum, has been painted over in this area. Whether these small variations on the present sheet are the result of inking alone or whether Rembrandt was in fact trying out small adjustments in this area, is difficult to affirm.
The Angel appearing to the Shepherds is one of the earliest night scenes etched by Rembrandt, a genre that would become something of a speciality of the artist. It is interesting to note that the Annunciation to the Shepherds was one of the subjects first depicted in European art as a true night scene, with the angel as an active light source, illuminating the pictorial space. Once of the earliest examples in painting is Taddeo Gaddi’s fresco of 1328-38 in the Capella Baroncelli at Santa Croce in Florence, but Rembrandt would have certainly known Flemish examples, either in paintings or miniatures, of the motif.