Every other angel in this catalogue arrives to announce, guard, feed, free or attend. In this episode an angel is an antagonist: the night-long wrestling match from which Jacob emerges named and injured. The figure is unnamed in the title and unranked in the tradition, and the ambiguity is part of the story rather than a gap in the record — the text itself is uncertain about what Jacob was holding on to.
The catalogue dates the work to 1659 and gives Rembrandt, a Dutch painter, with the style term Baroque. It measures 137 x 116 cm and the measured colour family is brown. The recorded location is the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin.
The nine-order scheme sorts angels by proximity to God and assigns each order a kind of work: contemplation at the top, contact with human beings at the bottom. Nothing in that scheme accounts for an adversary. This is why the wrestling subject sits oddly in any catalogue organised by hierarchy — the figure cannot be placed in a rank, only in an episode. This site files it by the episode and says so, rather than inventing a category to hold it.
Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (15 July 1606 – 4 October 1669), known mononymously as Rembrandt, was a Dutch Golden Age painter, printmaker, and draughtsman. He is generally considered one of the greatest visual artists in the history of We
Dutch painter, printmaker, 1606-1669
description: painting by Rembrandt, Gemäldegalerie Berlin; inception: 1659; dimensions: 137 × 116 cm; collection: Gemäldegalerie Berlin
Primary source record for this work (id.smb.museum).
Louie Drehmer, Curator, Angel Oil Paintings
Louie curates Angel Oil Paintings. The sources available for this entry are listed above.
Jacob Wrestling with the Angel is an oil painting by Rembrandt, 1659, held at Gemäldegalerie Berlin.
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