Portrait of a Man as the Apostle Paul

When the National Gallery cleaned this canvas in 1945 and 1946, just after its pictures came back from wartime storage in a Welsh slate quarry, two small carved roundels reappeared in the dark background. The one above the sword leaning against the wall shows Abraham about to sacrifice his son Isaac, with an angel stepping in to stop him. That scene is what ties the old man to Paul. The Letter to the Hebrews, read in Rembrandt's day as Paul's own writing, holds up Abraham's obedience as the model of faith. The sword, the weapon of Paul's execution, and the book open on the table point the same way. Who actually sat for it is unknown. It may be a real person cast in the role of the apostle, or simply a model in the studio. The second roundel, to the right of the head, is so rubbed that nobody can say what it once showed, and the date painted beside it has lost enough that 1659 is only the likeliest reading.