• Advanced imaging techniques have reattributed Vision of Zacharias in the Temple (1633) to Rembrandt after decades of doubt.
• Technical and stylistic analysis ties the work to his early Amsterdam period.
• Unseen publicly since 1961, it is now on long-term loan to the Rijksmuseum.

Advanced imaging and material analysis have led experts to reattribute a long-overlooked biblical scene to Rembrandt van Rijn, identifying the 1633 painting as a lost masterpiece after more than six decades of doubt.

Titled Vision of Zacharias in the Temple, the work was last studied in 1960, when scholars ruled out the possibility that it could be by the Dutch master. Now, more than six decades later, specialists have access to a much wider range of advanced analysis techniques, which have allowed them to establish that the painting was indeed produced by Rembrandt in 1633.

Still in his mid-twenties at the time, the artist had only recently moved to Amsterdam from his native Leiden. Rijksmuseum director Taco Dibbits said the painting offers an opportunity to better understand how Rembrandt developed his style as a young artist. He added that “it is a beautiful example of the unique way that Rembrandt depicts stories.”

The painting is now on long-term loan to the Rijksmuseum, where it goes on permanent public display on Wednesday, March 4.

Researchers study Rembrandt van Rijn’s Vision of Zacharias in the Temple (1633). Courtesy of the Rijksmuseum.

This will be the first time that the painting has been made public since 1961, when it was sold to a private collection. In the distant past it had been attributed to Rembrandt, and appeared in the first major Dutch exhibition dedicated to the artist at the Stedelijk Museum in 1898.

After 1960, however, specialists decided the work might have been painted by one of Rembrandt’s collaborators such as Jan Lievens or Salomon Koninck, according to the Dutch news outlet Het Parool. Without being able to view the work, these claims could not be verified until two years ago, when the Rjiksmuseum was approached by its current owner. The work was handed over to the museum’s world-leading conservation and science department, which was recently responsible for “Operation Night Watch,” a high-profile, multi-year study and restoration of Rembrandt’s revered Night Watch painting.

As well as traditional stylistic comparisons and signature analysis, the two-year research project into Vision of Zacharias in the Temple centered around a macro-XRF scan that revealed “pentimenti,” traces that reveal a composition has been altered. These are typical of the Dutch Old Masters painting technique.

Detail of Rembrandt van Rijn, Vision of Zacharias in the Temple (1633). Courtesy of the Rijksmuseum.

The work’s oak panel was accurately dated to around 1625 and 1640 by dendrochronological analysis. A material analysis showed that the paints used were the same as those used in other Rembrandt works from the period. Other factors that support the authentication of this painting include its overall high quality and its thematic similarities with the rest of Rembrandt’s oeuvre, including Daniel and Cyrus Before the Idol Bel (1633) and Jeremiah Lamenting the Destruction of Jerusalem (1630).

A full account of the study will be available in the March issue of the Burlington Magazine.

Vision of Zacharias in the Temple portrays the moment the high priest Zacharias is visited by the archangel Gabriel, who announces that he and his wife will have a son—the future Saint John the Baptist. Though the angel is not directly visible in the composition, a burst of radiant light suggests his divine presence.

In 2023, Rembrandt’s rediscovered painting The Adoration of the Kings (ca. 1628) was sold at Sotheby’s for £10.9 million ($13.7 million). The work had only recently been authenticated after it was sold at Christie’s in Amsterdam in 2021 for just under $1 million. It was at that time attributed to the “circle of Rembrandt,” having long been held in a private collection since the 1950s.