Die Flucht nach Ägypten

Rembrandt was only 21 when he painted this, still working in his home town of Leiden and not yet the famous man he would become in Amsterdam. It is tiny, barely ten inches high. It shows the Holy Family fleeing by night into Egypt to escape Herod, and what the young painter cares about most is the darkness. Joseph, Mary, and the child are pulled out of near-total shadow by a single warm light, everything around them dissolving into black. This handling of deep gloom pierced by light became the thing Rembrandt was known for, and here you can watch him working it out early. The little panel then vanished for around 150 years before turning up again at auction and eventually reaching a museum in the French town of Tours.