The Toilet of Bathsheba  1643

King David, barely discernible atop the palace in the background, sees Bathsheba bathing and sends for her, despite the fact that she is married to his loyal soldier Uriah (Samuel 2:2–5). The king later arranges for Uriah to be killed in battle. The painting is one of a few dating from the 1640s in which Rembrandt revives his early, precisely descriptive manner in order to...