JEREMIAH
LAMENTING THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM
by Rembrandt Harmensz van Rijn
Seated at the base of a large column, the prophet Jeremiah mourns the destruction
of Jerusalem. It was an event he had prophesied but was powerless to prevent.
Rembrandt painted this panel in 1630. The light falls almost exclusively on the
old man and his immediate surroundings. His bushy beard, wrinkled forehead and
fur-lined cloak are depicted with great precision. Away from the light, on the
left in the background, the fall of Jerusalem is shown. The Babylonian troops
of King Nebuchadnezzar II are marching into the city and putting it to the torch.
These events occurred in the year 586 BC. Zedekiah, King of Judah, is standing
outside the city, his head in his hands. Nebuchadnezzar ordered his eyes to be
gouged out..
Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn is certainly the most famous of Holland's seventeenth-century
painters. He was born in 1606 in Leiden, the fifth son of the miller Harmen Gerritsz.
van Rijn. After attending Latin School he registered in 1620 at Leiden University,
although he never actually graduated. Rembrandt studied under the Leiden painter
Jacob van Swanenburch and under Pieter Lastman in Amsterdam. It was through Lastman
that he discovered the powerful contrast of light and dark of Caravaggio and his
followers. Back in Leiden he set up together with Jan Lievens as an independent
artist, with his own studio and his first pupil: Gerard Dou.