  About the Artwork
  
  
  Rembrandt van Rijn brought his famous ability to contrast light and shadow to this rare biblical scene of a nocturnal meeting between the pregnant Virgin Mary and her older cousin Elizabeth, who is miraculously also expecting a child. A ray of moonlight dramatically illuminates the two women, Mary standing gracefully erect, Elizabeth bent and holding a cane. Behind Elizabeth her aged husband Zechariah makes his way down the steps of their house, aided by a young boy. Another servant, a Black woman, removes Mary’s cloak. Rembrandt frequently included Black figures in his scenes from the Bible and classical mythology. This reflected contemporary Dutch viewers’ increasing interest in the African west coast as sea travel to that region intensified and as growing numbers of Africans found their way to Amsterdam of their own volition or were forcibly brought there as slaves.
  
  
  Title
  The Visitation
  
  
  Artwork Date
  1640
  
  Artist
  Rembrandt Harmensz van Rijn
  
  
  
  Life Dates
  1606-1669
  
  
  
  
  Nationality
  
  
  
  Please note:
  Definitions for nationality may vary significantly, depending on chronology and world events.
  Some definitions include:
  Belonging to a people having a common origin based on a geography and/or descent and/or tradition and/or culture and/or religion and/or language, or sharing membership in a legally defined nation.
  
  
  
  Dutch
  
  
  
  Culture
  
  
  
  Please note:
  Cultures may be defined by the language, customs, religious beliefs, social norms, and material traits of a group.
  
  
  
  
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  Medium
  Oil on cedar panel
  
  
  Dimensions
  Unframed: 22 1/4 × 18 7/8 inches (56.5 × 47.9 cm)
  Framed: 33 × 30 × 4 1/2 inches (83.8 × 76.2 × 11.4 cm)
  
  
  Classification
  Paintings
  
  
  Department
  European Painting
  
  
  Credit
  City of Detroit Purchase
  
  
  
  Accession Number
  
  
  
  This unique number is assigned to an individual artwork as part of the cataloguing process at the time of entry into the permanent collection.
  Most frequently, accession numbers begin with the year in which the artwork entered the museum’s holdings.
  For example, 2008.3 refers to the year of acquisition and notes that it was the 3rd of that year. The DIA has a few additional systems—no longer assigned—that identify specific donors or museum patronage groups.
  
  
  
  27.200
  
  
  Copyright
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