Simeon's Song

A vast, dark temple, and in it one small pool of light. Simeon kneels with the child in his arms and looks upward. Mary and Joseph kneel beside him, and a tall figure seen from behind raises a hand in blessing.

Rembrandt painted the panel in 1631, at twenty-five, in his last year in Leiden. The standing figure is the prophetess Anna, who “coming in that instant gave thanks likewise unto the Lord”. The great empty space around the group is the subject as much as the group itself.