Divine Encounter: Rembrandt's Abraham and the Angels

In 1646, on a panel fewer than nine inches wide, Rembrandt van Rijn (1606–1669) produced one of his most captivating images. In private hands and publicly exhibited only a handful of times, this extraordinary painting, Abraham Entertaining the Angels , is among the artist’s lesser-known masterpieces and it is the inspiration for Divine Encounter . Rembrandt took an unusual and dramatic approach to Biblical subjects. He made use of the viewer’s knowledge of the subject whilst finding ways to bring the familiar to life, a challenge he took on throughout his career.

Abraham and the Angels is presented alongside a selection of Rembrandt’s treatments of other biblical episodes in which Abraham encounters God and his angels. These are examined as a group, compared with versions by Rembrandt’s contemporaries, and considered in relation to theological, philosophical and artistic debates of the period.