Embracing the Divine: Devotional zeal and mystical “Humanation” in Rembrandt’s annunciation sketch

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dc.contributor.authorNutting, Catherine M.
dc.date.accessioned2026-02-06T23:54:35Z
dc.date.available2026-02-06T23:54:35Z
dc.date.issued2012
dc.description.abstractRembrandt’s 17th–century sketches of radical religious transformation illuminate the inner workings of spiritual conviction and reveal the religious tone of Rembrandt’s society. But they also privilege psychology over narrative, and use emotionally charged gestures to elucidate human responses to divine presence. In particular, Rembrandt develops the symbol of the divine touch, which I argue parallels the 17th–century Dutch absorption in debates about the workings of God’s grace. The symbolic physical closeness that characterises Rembrandt’s Old and New Testament subjects is grounded in the Reformation emphasis on personally knowing a magnanimous God, which is in turn rooted in concepts of the mystical marriage between God and “saved humanity,” themes that underlie Rembrandt’s unusual Annunciation sketch.
dc.description.scholarlevelGraduate
dc.identifier.citationNutting, C. M. (2012). Embracing the Divine: Devotional zeal and mystical “Humanation” in Rembrandt’s annunciation sketch. Illumine, 11(1), 51–81. https://doi.org/10.18357/illumine.nuttingcm.1112012
dc.identifier.urihttps://doi.org/10.18357/illumine.nuttingcm.1112012
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/1828/23262
dc.language.isoen
dc.publisherIllumine
dc.rightsCC BY-NC 4.0
dc.rights.urihttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
dc.subjectRembrandt
dc.subjectmystical
dc.subjectdivine
dc.subjectAnnunciation
dc.subjectHumanation
dc.subjectreligion
dc.subjectsociety
dc.subjectculture
dc.subjectIllumine
dc.subjectCSRS
dc.subjectUVic
dc.subjectUniversity of Victoria
dc.subjectCentre for Studies in Religion and Society
dc.subject.departmentDepartment of Art History and Visual Studies
dc.titleEmbracing the Divine: Devotional zeal and mystical “Humanation” in Rembrandt’s annunciation sketch
dc.typeArticle

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Illumine, Vol. 11, No. 1 (2012)
 
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