- Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn, Dutch baroque artist, painted The Return of the Prodigal Son shortly before his death in 1669. Painted after his son, Titus, had just died.
- Rembrandt was a deeply spiritual man, who had a great reverence for the bible, but also lived in excess, a spend thrift and art collector, but at the point in his life when he painted this image of the prodigal son he had gone though many a similar situation as the younger son. Spending all of his wife’s inheritance until bankruptcy. And seeing the tragedy of his own son and wife passing away. The painting and its meaning are deeply linked with Rembrandt’s personal experience.
- Looking at the painting, there are two things I want to draw your attention to, that directly relate to the theme. There is striking contrast between the light cast on the father and the son, and the shadows that the other subjects in the painting dwell within. I believe this is intentional to highlight the deep personal interaction that is happening between the father and the son, the father does not show mercy, love, compassion, forgiveness, for anyone’s sake other than the son’s. Regardless of who the other subjects are, this moment and its consequences are between the father and the son.
- The second thing I want to draw your attention is the appearances of the father and the son. The son left with the father’s money and wishing him dead, and returns in tatters. One of his sandals broken at the strap, his hair cut short as a slave would. But more importantly is the position of the son, on his knees,his face is adverted symbolizing his sorrow, shame, remorse, and perhaps anxiety over his father’s response. This is contrasted by the father, in which, Rembrandt paints the father’s face focusing most of our attention on him. Wearing a scarlet cloak symbolizing his love. You see it in his occluded eyes. You see it in his arms, as they tenderly embrace the undeserving son. You can sense unrelenting mercy and love and forgiveness.
-These highlights represent one of the themes of the parable of the prodigal son, and the paintings theme, repentance, not only in the straight-forward sense, changing one’s mind and heart to God, but in a deeper, and more complex sense that repentance is a journey, laden with emotions, thoughts, and actions, as well as consequences. The end point being as scripture puts it “refreshment and forgiveness”. This painting is just a moment along that journey.
-One final note, In an earlier iteration of this painting, Rembrandt painted both the son’s and father’s faces, but in the final iteration choose only the father. I thought about it for awhile, it’s tempting to see the painting in a literal sense, a father welcoming a wayward son home. But this is THE father, who’s divine love will never let us go. Who’s mercy restores. Ultimately, this painting is about us, to say we are all works in progress, and we must all look to the father for direction.
- Rembrandt was a deeply spiritual man, who had a great reverence for the bible, but also lived in excess, a spend thrift and art collector, but at the point in his life when he painted this image of the prodigal son he had gone though many a similar situation as the younger son. Spending all of his wife’s inheritance until bankruptcy. And seeing the tragedy of his own son and wife passing away. The painting and its meaning are deeply linked with Rembrandt’s personal experience.
- Looking at the painting, there are two things I want to draw your attention to, that directly relate to the theme. There is striking contrast between the light cast on the father and the son, and the shadows that the other subjects in the painting dwell within. I believe this is intentional to highlight the deep personal interaction that is happening between the father and the son, the father does not show mercy, love, compassion, forgiveness, for anyone’s sake other than the son’s. Regardless of who the other subjects are, this moment and its consequences are between the father and the son.
- The second thing I want to draw your attention is the appearances of the father and the son. The son left with the father’s money and wishing him dead, and returns in tatters. One of his sandals broken at the strap, his hair cut short as a slave would. But more importantly is the position of the son, on his knees,his face is adverted symbolizing his sorrow, shame, remorse, and perhaps anxiety over his father’s response. This is contrasted by the father, in which, Rembrandt paints the father’s face focusing most of our attention on him. Wearing a scarlet cloak symbolizing his love. You see it in his occluded eyes. You see it in his arms, as they tenderly embrace the undeserving son. You can sense unrelenting mercy and love and forgiveness.
-These highlights represent one of the themes of the parable of the prodigal son, and the paintings theme, repentance, not only in the straight-forward sense, changing one’s mind and heart to God, but in a deeper, and more complex sense that repentance is a journey, laden with emotions, thoughts, and actions, as well as consequences. The end point being as scripture puts it “refreshment and forgiveness”. This painting is just a moment along that journey.
-One final note, In an earlier iteration of this painting, Rembrandt painted both the son’s and father’s faces, but in the final iteration choose only the father. I thought about it for awhile, it’s tempting to see the painting in a literal sense, a father welcoming a wayward son home. But this is THE father, who’s divine love will never let us go. Who’s mercy restores. Ultimately, this painting is about us, to say we are all works in progress, and we must all look to the father for direction.
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