Christ on the cross

Rembrandt was 25 when he painted this, still living in Leiden, the Dutch town where he was born, and not yet the famous name he would become in Amsterdam. He gives us no glory here. The body sags, the face is contorted, and the light falls on a man who looks genuinely afraid to die. That was close to shocking at a time when Christ on the cross was usually shown calm and triumphant. The painting's early history is mostly lost. It surfaced at auction, was bought in northern France, and in 1805 a French army officer gave it to the parish church of his small hometown, Le Mas-d'Agenais, where it still hangs today. Only in 1959 did a cleaning uncover Rembrandt's signature under Christ's feet.