Balaam and the Ass, Rembrandt, 1626

Rembrandt’s adapted lastman’s painting of bileam’s ass: the ass, but also the figure and dress of the barefooted bileam, the accompanying servants on horseback, the angel and the setting. Rembrandt enhances the oriental features by giving proper turbans to bileam and his two servants, where lastman’s bileam wears only a long headscarf that flutters in the breeze. It was rembrandt’s first biblical oriental. Object Type: painting. Genre: religious art. Date: 1626. Dimensions: height: 63 cm (24.8 in) ; width: 46.5 cm (18.3 in). Medium: oil on oak panel. Depicted People: Balaam. Collection: Musée Cognacq-Jay. Balaam Rembrandt 01