Les Pèlerins d'Emmaüs

Rembrandt painted this supper at Emmaus in 1648, and it is worth knowing he had treated the same Gospel scene almost 20 years earlier as pure shock, the risen Christ a black silhouette against a burst of light. Here, older and after hard years, he does the opposite. Two travellers share a meal with a stranger, and at the instant he breaks the bread they realise it is Christ, back from the dead. The light is steady and warm, the disciples' astonishment quiet. By 1648 Rembrandt had buried his wife Saskia, seen his fortunes turn, and the drama has moved inward. One servant, still carrying a dish, has noticed nothing at all.