Head of Christ

Around 1650 in Amsterdam, someone in Rembrandt's circle did something unusual with the face of Christ. Instead of the fair, idealised figure of tradition, this head was painted from a living model, most likely a young man from the city's Jewish quarter, not far from Rembrandt's own house. The point was to show Christ as a Jewish man of his own time might really have looked, the head turned slightly down and lit softly, with no halo and no gold. Rembrandt kept several such heads; the inventory of his belongings drawn up in 1656 lists one done from life. Whether this panel is from his own hand or a gifted pupil's has never been settled, which is why it hangs here under no firm name.