Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn

A very fine, clear lifetime impression of New Hollstein's second state (of five). Some slipped printing in the clouds at the upper left, otherwise printing with great clarity and intense contrasts. With large margins up to 12 mm wide. In a masterfully composed scene, the artist depicts the death of the Virgin as a profoundly human and, at the same time, supernatural event. In the left part of the painting, the Virgin lies in a bed covered by a canopy. Her deathbed is surrounded by a group of deeply moved figures whose gestures and facial expressions convey a wide range of emotions, including grief, devotion, and inner turmoil. In the upper part of the composition, a heavenly apparition unfolds: a group of angels floating down from above, bathing the scene in a transcendent light. In this work, Rembrandt’s ability to unite the earthly and the divine within a single pictorial space is brought to a head, a work of great emotional intensity and technical sophistication that ranks among the pinnacles of 17th-century printmaking. – Slightly time-stained in the cutout of the mount; a few tiny foxing spots. A vertical, smoothed crease on the reverse along the right margin. In very good condition considering the size of the sheet.