Medea or The Marriage of Jason and Creusa

Artist Rembrandt van Rijn (Dutch, 1606 - 1669)

Date1648

MediumEtching with drypoint

DimensionsOverall: 9 1/2 × 7 inches (24.13 × 17.78 cm)

Credit LinePurchase: William Rockhill Nelson Trust

Object number33-381

On View

Not on view

Collections

Prints

Terms

Exhibition History

Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, January-February 1938, no cat.

University of Kansas Museum of Art, Lawrence, KS, 1952, no cat.

Fine Arts Festival, The First Christian Church, St. Joseph, MO, November 19-20, 1958, no cat.

Rembrandt, Master Etcher: A Study Exhibition, Washington University Gallery of Art, St. Louis, MO, April 2-23, 1972, no cat.

Mythological Subjects, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, October 9, 2007-April 13, 2008, no cat., as Medea or The Marriage of Jason and Creusa.

Mythological Subjects, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, June 12-December 15, 2013, no cat., as Medea or The Marriage of Jason and Creusa.

Gallery Label

Jason was the leader of the Argonauts, who captured the Golden Fleece. In this he was aided by the sorceress Medea, whom he married but later deserted. When Jason remarried, Medea sent his new wife Creusa a poisoned robe, which burned her to death. Here, Rembrandt has set the marriage scene in a vast, brightly lit chamber, while at lower right, Medea lurks in the shadows with the fatal robe.

Provenance

With Alden Galleries, Kansas City, MO, by June 1, 1933;

Purchased from Alden Galleries by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1933.

Published References

Arthur Mayger Hind, A Catalogue of Rembrandt’s Etchings, vol. 1, Introduction and Catalogue (London: Methuen, 1923), no. 273, pp. 23, 40, 112, as The Adoration of the Shepherds (with the Lamp).

Arthur Mayger Hind, A Catalogue of Rembrandt’s Etchings, vol. 2, Etchings (London: Methuen, 1923), no. 273.

Ludwig Münz, Rembrandt’s Etchings, 2 vols. (London: Phaidon, 1952), no. 226 I/II.

George Biörklund, Rembrandt’s Etchings, True and False: A Summary Catalogue in a Distinctive Chronological Order and Completely Illustrated, 2^nd ed. (Stockholm: 1968), no. BB 54-1 I/II.

Karel G. Boon and Christopher White, Hollstein’s Dutch and Flemish Etchings, Engravings and Woodcuts, vol. 18, Rembrandt van Rijn: Text (Amsterdam: Van Gendt, 1969), no. 34 I/II.

Karel G. Boon and Christopher White, Hollstein’s Dutch and Flemish Etchings, Engravings and Woodcuts, vol. 19, Rembrandt van Rijn: Plates (Amsterdam: Van Gendt, 1969), no. 34 I/II.

George L. McKenna, Prints, 1460-1995 (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1996), 276, as The Adoration of the Shepherds: With the Lamp.

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