# Philemon and Baucis [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [REMBRANDT Harmenszoon van Rijn]() - Date: 1601-1650 - Technique: Oil on panel, 55 x 69 cm ## Commentary <a href="\#" onClick="w=window.open \('/database/glossary/note03.html', 'newWin', 'scrollbars=yes,status=no,dependent=yes,screenX=0,screenY=0,width=300,height=400'\);w.opener=this;w.focus\(\);return false">Catalogue number:</a> Bredius 481. In this painting Rembrandt depicts the episode form Ovid's Metamorphoses \(Book VIII, 618-724\). Jupiter and Mercury visit Philemon and Baucis, disguised as mortals. After being turned away at countless doors, they are given shelter by an old peasant couple, Philemon and Baucis. The couple provide the best meal they can and are about to kill their most precious possession, a goose, when Jupiter and Mercury reveal themselves. The gods invite them to climb a mountainside and, when they look back, they see all the country flooded except their cottage, which has been transformed into a magnificent temple. As a reward for their spontaneous generosity, Philemon and Baucis are made guardians of this temple for the rest of their lives. This is a rare instance from the later part of Rembrandt's career of his using a subject from Ovid's Metamorphoses. Even so, the picture has more the atmosphere of a religious scene than an episode from classical mythology. ## Related artworks - [A black drummer and commander mounted on mules; riding in profile]() - [A child being taught to walk]() - [A cottage beneath trees]() - [A girl sleeping]() - [A Man Laughing]() - [A man making water]() - [A Peddler Selling Spectacles \(The Allegory of Sight\)]() - [A Polish Nobleman]() - [A Scholar]() - [A two-humped camel]() - [A woman in Zeeland costume, from the back]() - [A woman in Zeeland costume, from the front]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()