Giuseppe accusato dalla moglie di Putifarre

The story comes from Genesis. Potiphar's wife has tried to seduce the young Hebrew servant Joseph, failed, and now accuses him to her husband, waving the cloak Joseph left behind as her proof. Rembrandt painted this scene twice in the same year, 1655. This canvas stayed in Berlin, and its near-twin hangs in Washington. Here the wife leans forward in her chair, one foot on the discarded robe, her face sharp with accusation, while Joseph raises a hand and looks upward, protesting. X-rays show Rembrandt laid the whole thing over an earlier, abandoned painting, reworking the surface as he went. He signed and dated both versions the year his money troubles in Amsterdam were closing in.