Simeon's Song of Praise

In Luke's Gospel, an old man named Simeon had been promised that he would not die before he saw the Messiah. When the infant Jesus was brought to the Temple in Jerusalem, the old man took him in his arms and thanked God and asked to depart in peace. His words, the Nunc dimittis, are still sung at evening prayer.

Arent de Gelder painted the moment in 1700. Here Simeon lifts his face under a veil, and the light seems to come from the child lying in his lap. Mary bends close with her hands joined, and a bearded figure waits in the shadow behind.

The Mauritshuis also owns the version De Gelder's teacher Rembrandt painted in 1631. This canvas spent much of the 20th century in Minneapolis, at what became the Walker Art Center, and came to The Hague as a gift to the museum's Friends in 1987.