Hunterian reopens with Rembrandt and the Passion exhibition

Nine months after closing for refurbishment, the Hunterian Art Gallery at the University of Glasgow has reopened with a landmark exhibition. 'Rembrandt and the Passion' offers visitors an opportunity to see one of The Hunterian's most famous paintings, Rembrandt's 'Entombment Sketch', alongside a number of key international loans, including masterpieces never seen before in Scotland. Featuring around 40 works, 'Rembrandt and the Passion' tells the story of the 'Entombment Sketch' and explains how it relates to one of the most significant commissions of Rembrandt's career - a series of paintings of the Passion of Christ, produced for the Prince of Orange between 1632 and 1646. Exhibition curator, Peter Black, said: "This exhibition really tells a story; it brings together examples of Passion paintings and drawings in order to show how Rembrandt developed our 'Entombment' painting. There are interesting relationships with works by his contemporaries. We also know in detail about the contents of the artist's house in 1656, and this tells us for example in which room our painting was hanging at that moment. He kept it in his living room, so probably it was a work he was still thinking about." For the first time ever, the exhibition displays the 'Entombment Sketch' alongside the finished 'Entombment' painting from Rembrandt's famous series, on loan from the Alte Pinakothek in Munich.