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Aristotle with a Bust of Homer

Rembrandt (Rembrandt van Rijn), 1653. Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

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Thirty works are on view at a time, ten to a room. Every day at midnight UTC, the ten that have hung longest go back into storage and ten others come out, so each work hangs for three days and then rests for three. A work always returns to the same place on the same wall.

A bearded man in a wide black hat and white sleeves, with a gold chain over one shoulder, rests his hand on a marble bust of Homer in a dark room.
Image: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Open Access (CC0). Select it for the full size.

The philosopher Aristotle stands in a dim room in a broad black hat and wide white sleeves, resting one hand on a marble bust of the poet Homer. From his shoulder hangs a heavy gold chain with a medallion that bears the face of Alexander the Great, his famous pupil. So the painting brings together three men: a poet, a thinker and a ruler. Aristotle doesn’t look at the bust. His eyes are turned inward, as if he is weighing something. Rembrandt painted it for a collector in Sicily. The sleeves are built up in thick, almost sculpted paint, while the face sinks into shadow. It is a picture of thinking.

Look closely

  1. Find the face on the medallion hanging from the chain.
  2. Look at the hand on Homer’s head. Is it resting, or reaching?
  3. Compare the thick paint of the sleeves with the thin paint of the shadows.

While you sit

A man with his hand on a great poet, thinking. You can think alongside him, or simply rest your eyes on the gold.

Your seat in the galleries: a dark ebony bench with a heavy brass chain draped along its side.

About the work

Title
Aristotle with a Bust of Homer
Artist
Rembrandt (Rembrandt van Rijn)
Date
1653
From
Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Medium
Oil on canvas
Size
56 1/2 x 53 3/4 in. (143.5 x 136.5 cm)
Rights
Public domain
Image
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Open Access (CC0)
Record
The museum's page for this work

The words on this page were written for the campus, not taken from the museum's label.

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