Exclusive: Unknown hand covered up artist’s depiction of diverse crowd during influx of refugees to Leiden in 1620s
Layers of overpaint have been removed from a 17th-century painting, confirming that it was painted by Rembrandt and revealing that a turban on one of the figures had been replaced with a traditional Dutch soft cap.
A later anonymous hand had amended or sanitised Rembrandt’s original, apparently misunderstanding that its biblical theme – “Let the Little Children Come Unto Me” – is about tolerance, with Christ blessing children as well as adults. In the gospel of Saint Luke, Jesus rebukes his disciples for turning away parents who brought their children to him: “Suffer [allow] little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven.”
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Exclusive: Unknown hand covered up artist’s depiction of diverse crowd during influx of refugees to Leiden in 1620sLayers of overpaint have been removed from a 17th-century painting, confirming that it was painted by...
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