Christ Crucified Between the Two Thieves: 'The Three Crosses'1653-c.1660
Rembrandt’s Christ Crucified Between the Two Thieves is executed entirely in drypoint. More about this work
About this work
Rembrandt’s Christ Crucified Between the Two Thieves is executed entirely in drypoint. Because of the delicacy of the technique, the copper plate was worn after the artist printed about 40 impressions of the first three states. In order to continue using the plate, Rembrandt reworked it, changing the image somewhat. In this fourth state, slashing strokes obscure the spectators visible in the earlier version, creating a tenebrous setting that focuses attention on Christ bathed in celestial light. Although drypoint is an inherently linear medium, Rembrandt used it to obtain tonal qualities associated with painting. The blackness becomes an active force that threatens to extinguish the light of Christ—a literal illustration of the Evangelist Luke’s description of the event that brought "a darkness over all the earth."
Text from the Cleveland Museum of Art.
How it was made
- Drypoint
- Lines scratched straight into the plate with a needle throw up a ridge of metal, the burr, which holds ink and prints a soft, furred line. The burr wears down, so early impressions are the richest.
Rembrandt van Rijn
Dutch, 1606–1669 · Born in Leiden; died in Amsterdam.
Rembrandt trained in Leiden and Amsterdam, settled in Amsterdam in the early 1630s and became the city’s most sought-after portraitist. His later work grows rougher and more searching, with thick paint, deep shadow and faces that seem lost in thought, as in Aristotle with a Bust of Homer, painted for a Sicilian collector. He was also the leading etcher of his age, reworking plates through many states and making the medium as expressive as painting.
Written by Ochre Editions.
Rights and the museum’s record
Public domain. The Cleveland Museum of Art has dedicated this image to the public domain under CC0, so anyone may copy, adapt and use it, for any purpose, without asking. Our prints and files are reproductions made from the museum’s image; the museum doesn’t endorse them.
- Object number
- 1959.241
- Credit
- Courtesy of the Cleveland Museum of Art
- Type
- Department
- Prints
- Licence
- CC0 1.0 Universal
- Museum record
- See it on the museum’s site
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