Return of the Prodigal Son

The ragged, kneeling son buries his shorn head against his father's breast, and the old man - nearly blind, his face soft with grief and joy - lays both worn hands gently on the boy's back, while silent witnesses look on from the shadows (Luke 15). Rembrandt, near the end of his life, paints forgiveness itself, glowing in deep reds and golden browns out of the dark. Now in the Hermitage, the Return of the Prodigal Son is among the most profoundly tender images in all of art, mercy rendered as a simple embrace.