Danaë

A closer look

Rather than painting the shower of coins seen in other versions, Rembrandt let the god's arrival appear as a warm, golden glow flooding the room from the left. Danaë, naked on rich white sheets, raises herself on one arm, her face full of expectation, while an old servant draws back the heavy curtain. Above the bed, a gilded cupid with bound hands weeps. Her body is painted not as an idealised goddess but as a real woman, soft and natural. Rembrandt reworked the painting several years after first painting it, changing her face.