REMBRANDT’S VISION

REMBRANDT’S VISION

Did Rembrandt have cataracts? Though there is no proof, he lived into his sixties, so it is indeed possible and would explain the progressive defocus and brunescence of his color palette in his later works.
Rembrandt’s depiction of the Story of Tobit is also of interest to physicians and visual scientists because it shows how fascinated was Rembrandt regarding advances in optical science that were taking place, especially in Amsterdam, with his colleagues Christiaan Huygens and Antonie Philips van Leeuwenhoek.
According to the story in the Book of Tobit, Tobias sleeps outdoors one night and is blinded by bird droppings.
In Rembrandt’s painting, seen here, Tobias applies “fish’s gall,” given to him by the Archangel Raphael, to cure the blindness in his father Tobias’ eye (probably a cataract) as Raphael looks on.

The Book of Tobit is a part of the Apocrypha. It was not accepted by Bishop Irenaeus in the second century CE nor Jerome in 405 CE as part of the canonical Bible. It was termed a “deuterocanonical” text.

Tobias Healing his Father Tobit’s Blindness
Rembrandt van Rijn c.1636
Staatsgalerie  Stuttgart