Bildnis des Cornelis Claeszoon Anslo und seiner Frau Aaltje Schouten

Rembrandt faced an odd problem with this 1641 portrait. His sitter, Cornelis Anslo, was a wealthy Amsterdam cloth merchant famous less for his money than for his preaching, a leading voice among the Mennonites. The poet Joost van den Vondel teased that to paint Anslo properly you would have to paint his voice. Rembrandt's answer fills the canvas. Anslo turns from an open Bible, his mouth just parting, one hand thrown forward as if in the middle of a sentence, and to give that speech a listener Rembrandt adds his wife, Aaltje, seated and attentive at the right. A candle, books and the great Bible surround him. You seem to catch the preacher mid-word, between the page and the woman he is speaking to.