Two Old Men Disputing (“St. Peter and
St. Paul”)
Leiden School, possibly Jan Lievens(Leiden 1607 – 1674 Amsterdam)ca. 1630
oil on panel
39.1 x 31.9 cm
GD-101© 2020 The Leiden Collection

Two Old Men Disputing (“St. Peter and St. Paul”)
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How to cite
Rahusen, Henriette. “Two Old Men Disputing (“St. Peter and St. Paul”)” (2017). In The Leiden Collection
Catalogue,

2nd

ed.

EditedbyArthurK.

Wheelock

Jr.

New

York,

2017–20.

https://theleidencollection.com/artwork/two-old-men-disputing/ (archived May 2020).
A PDF of every version of this entry is available in this Online Catalogue's Archive, and the Archive ismanaged by a permanent URL. New versions are added only when a substantive change to the narrative
occurs.

Resting his hands on the large tome lying open on the table, an elderly man

Comparative Figuresleans toward his bearded companion across the table. Diffuse light streamingin from the left catches books and papers at the corner of the table before
illuminating the figures’ faces. The rest of the room remains shrouded inrelative darkness. The bearded man whose back is turned to the viewer
wears a bright red skullcap and a voluminous red robe with silver decorations
beneath his heavy dark cloak, attributes that recall the wardrobe of a cardinalof the Roman Catholic Church.[1] Yet, given the suppression of Roman
Catholicism in the Dutch Republic during the early seventeenth century(when this painting was executed), it is unlikely that the scene actually
represents a theological exchange from those years. A far more likely
scenario is that this is a history painting, evoking an imagined discussion
between two elderly churchmen from another time and place.

Fig 1. Rembrandt van Rijn, Two
Scholars Disputing, 1628, oil onwood panel, 72.4 x 59.7 cm,
National Gallery of Victoria,
Melbourne, inv. no. 349-4

Most probably, the scene focuses upon the fundamental theological dispute
between the apostles Peter and Paul that occurred during the second of their
two meetings, which took place in Antioch around the middle of the first
century AD.[2] As described in Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians, Paul disputedPeter’s position that Gentile (pagan, non-Jewish) converts to Christianity
had to comply fully with the laws of the Torah in order to obtain redemption.
Peter’s position was that all converts had to follow Jewish dietary laws andthat male converts had to be circumcised, while Paul argued that a nonJewish convert’s faith in Christ alone was sufficient.[3]© 2020 The Leiden Collection

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The theological dispute between these two giants of early Christianity overthe proper practices of the faithful had great resonance in the Dutch Republicof the 1620s, a period of acrimonious tensions between the moderate

Fig 2. Jan Lievens, A Magus at a
Table, ca. 1631–32, Upton House,
Warwickshire, inv. 446728, ©
National Trust Collections

Remonstrant and hard-line Counter-Remonstrant factions within the Dutch
Calvinist community. One aspect of that controversy concerned theappropriate level of religious tolerance that should be extended to those whopracticed faiths other than strict Calvinism. This debate not only echoed theissues discussed by Peter and Paul in Antioch, but the way Dutch
theologians framed their arguments may also have had an impact on thecomposition of this painting. Specifically, in his influential Vrye godes-dienst(Free Religion), published in 1627, Simon Episcopius, one of the leading
Dutch proponents of religious tolerance, constructed his arguments about thebenefits of religious pluralism in the form of a dispute between two men.[4]The likely visual prototype for this work was Rembrandt van Rijn’s (1606–69)
Two Scholars Disputing (also called St. Peter and St. Paul), 1628, in the
National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne (fig 1).[5] Not only are the paintings
similar in theme and composition, but the man wearing the skullcap in the
Leiden Collection painting also echoes—albeit in reverse—the triangularmonumentality of the foreground figure in the Melbourne painting.[6] The
similarities between these works indicate that this painting was also executedin Leiden in the late 1620s, but the artist’s identity still remains in doubt.
The attribution of Two Old Men Disputing has, in fact, confounded scholars
for generations. The painting has variously been attributed to Rembrandt;
Jan Lievens (1607–74); “a follower of Rembrandt, possibly Lievens;” the“immediate circle around Rembrandt, or even more likely, that of Jan
Lievens;” and in 2005 it entered The Leiden Collection as “attributed toGerrit Dou.”[7] This level of uncertainty dates to the painting’s earliest
appearance in the literature. When Two Old Men Disputing was sold in Parisin 1787, it was attributed to Rembrandt, but it was sold as a work by Lievens
when it changed hands the following year. Over one hundred years later, theDuke of Westminster sold it once again as a work by Rembrandt, an
attribution that was maintained for the greater part of the nineteenth andtwentieth centuries.[8] By 1980, however, attribution questions resurfaced andthe painting was sold as by a “follower of Rembrandt, possibly Lievens.”
In 1982, the Rembrandt Research Project (RRP) called the painting aneighteenth-century “imitation of Rembrandt’s early style, which was notproduced in his own circle.”[9] In 2005, however, the RRP reassessed thepainting’s attribution and described it as being from the “School of© 2020 The Leiden Collection

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Rembrandt,” proposing that it had “originated in the immediate circle around
Rembrandt, or even more likely, that of Jan Lievens.”[10] Whoever the artist,an attribution to Rembrandt cannot be supported: in contrast to Rembrandt’s
strong chiaroscuro and balanced and vibrant composition, this mirrored
adaptation, with the unseen light source bouncing off the vellum pages andthe folds of the tablecloth, is more stilted, more sparse, and more somber,and the figures are not modeled with the forceful three-dimensionality socharacteristic of Rembrandt.
The painting has more connections to Jan Lievens’s manner than to that ofGerrit Dou.[11] A close point of reference is A Magus at a Table, ca. 1631–32,
by Lievens in Upton House, Warwickshire (fig 2).[12] Both works include
dramatically dark backgrounds that accentuate the otherwise evenly
distributed light’s focus on the figures and the corner of the table, which has
documents dangling over the edge of a heavy, green tablecloth. The delicate
handling and the figural types in the painting also seem to echo Lievens’s
manner. Despite the uncertainty regarding the painting’s authorship, Two Old
Men Disputing fits comfortably within the vibrant artistic environment of
Leiden in the late 1620s.

- Henriette Rahusen, 2017

© 2020 The Leiden Collection

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Endnotes

1. The zucchetto or pileolus is a small, round skullcap worn by members of the Roman Catholicclergy. The color red is reserved for the zucchettos of cardinals. (The pope’s skullcap iswhite, and those worn by archbishops and bishops are purple).
2. The suggestion that the two men represent the apostles Peter and Paul was first made by
Christian Tümpel in his discussion of Rembrandt van Rijn’s Two Scholars Disputing, 1628
(National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne). Christian Tümpel, “Studien zur Ikonografie derHistorien Rembrandts,” Nederlands Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek 20 (1969): 182–87. Tümpel,
however, solely focused on the first of the two visits, when Paul stayed at Peter’s house inJerusalem for fifteen days (Galatians 1:18). The dispute at the heart of this painting actually
took place during their second meeting (Galatians 2:11–14).
3. Galatians 2:11–14. Click here for a detailed description of the dispute.
4. For the seventeenth-century debate on tolerance, see Jonathan Israel, The Dutch Republic:
Its Rise, Greatness and Fall, 1477–1806, The Oxford History of Early Modern Europe(Oxford, 1995), 502–3. Episcopius (1583–1643) was born Simon Bischop, but is known by the
Latinized version of his last name.
5. Click here for the object page of the National Gallery of Victoria.
6. For a discussion of Rembrandt’s Two Scholars Disputing in Melbourne, see Josua Bruyn etal. A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings, Vol. 1: 1625–1631, Stichting Foundation Rembrandt
Research Project (The Hague, 1982), 159–68, no. A 113, repro. See page 165, repro., forRembrandt’s Study in Red and Black Chalk (Staatliche Museen Preußischer Kulturbesitz,
Kupferstichkabinett, Berlin), on which the figure in the foreground of the Leiden Collection
painting is based.
The Rembrandt Research Project’s discussion of the Melbourne painting accepts ChristianTümpel’s interpretation that the two men are the apostles Peter and Paul, representing theJews and the Gentiles respectively (pp. 166–67). Neither the Rembrandt Research Projectnor Tümpel, however, connected the historical dispute in Antioch to the theological debate
swirling around the Dutch Republic in the 1620s.
7. Werner Sumowski, Gemälde der Rembrandt-Schüler, 6 vols. (Landau and Pfalz, 1983–94), 4:
2948, states that “according to Gerson [this painting is] a Dou-like adaptation of the
Melbourne painting.”
8. Rolf Fritz, Gemälde alter Meister (Dortmund, 1967), no. 77, repro., as Elias and Elisa by
Rembrandt, ca. 1629. Fritz reproduced an aquatint of the painting in reverse, inscribed “LesDocteurs,” by A. Bissel, ca. 1790–1810, as comparative figure to this painting’s entry. “LesDocteurs” in the caption refers to the role of the Book of Kings prophets Elias (Elijah) and his© 2020 The Leiden Collection

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disciple Elisa (Elisha) as Doctors of the Church. The full inscription on the aquatint reads:“Peint par Rembrandt gravé par A. Bissell. Les Docteurs. – Du Cabinet de Monsieur le Baronde Villiez – à Mannheim chez Dom: Artaria.”
9. Josua Bruyn et al. A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings, Vol. 1: 1625–1631, Stichting
Foundation Rembrandt Research Project (The Hague, 1982), 524–28, no. C513. One year
later, Werner Sumowski placed the painting in the “School of Rembrandt” after the
Melbourne painting of 1628. Werner Sumowski, Gemälde der Rembrandt-Schüler, 6 vols.
(Landau and Pfalz, 1983–94), 4: 2948, no. 1931.
10. Stichting Foundation Rembrandt Research Project, A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings, vol. 4,
Self-Portraits, ed. Ernst van de Wetering (Dordrecht, 2005), 596, 627–28, no. I C 513 / Br.
424.
11. Ronnie Baer did not include Two Old Men Disputing in her catalogue raisonné of Dou in
1990. See Ronni Baer, “The Paintings of Gerrit Dou (1613–1675)” (PhD diss., New York
University, 1990).
12. Thanks to Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. for pointing out the resemblances with this painting byLievens. (Lloyd DeWitt, however, deems the Upton House painting to be “closer toRembrandt or Dou than Lievens.” Personal communication, 27 May 2013). The Upton House
painting is listed as National Trust Inventory Number 446728. According to notes from the
National Trust, dendrochronology indicates that the oak panel came from a tree felled after
1660. However, more recent dendrochronological analysis by Ian Tyer indicates that
insufficient information exists about the wood rings to determine the felling date of this panel.

Provenance
François Leroy de la Faudignère (d. 1786), (his sale, A. J. Paillet, Paris, 8 January 1787, no.
324, as by School of Rembrandt).
Marquis de Montesquiou, (his sale, Paris, Lebrun, 9 December 1788, no. 158, as by Jan
Lievens).
Mr. La Reynière, (his sale, Paris, Lebrun, 3 April 1793, no. 99, as by Jan Lievens).
Duke of Westminster, London, (his sale, London, Christie’s, 4 July 1924, no. 90, as byRembrandt [to Wills for £2415]); [Paul Bottenwieser, Berlin, 1924–1925].
Dr. Wolfgang Huck, Berlin, 1925; [P. de Boer, Amsterdam, sold in 1955 to Becker for DM
120,000, as Elias and Elisa by Rembrandt]
Dr. Heinrich Becker, Dortmund, 1955; [Hans M. Cramer, The Hague, by 1980, inv. no. 87, as
by a follower of Rembrandt, possibly Jan Lievens].
© 2020 The Leiden Collection

Two Old Men Disputing (“St. Peter and St. Paul”)
Page 7 of 10[Newhouse Galleries, New York, 1991, as by Rembrandt].
[Bijl-Van Urk B. V., Alkmaar, 2005, as by School of Rembrandt].
From whom acquired by the present owner in 2005.

Exhibition History
Berlin, The Academy of Arts, “Gemälde alter Meister aus Berliner Privatbesitz,” July–August
1925, no. 313 [lent by Wolfgang Huck].
Delft, Prinsenhof Museum, “Drie Rembrandts in de jaren 1953–1956 verkocht door de
Kunsthandel P. de Boer Amsterdam,” 10 August–2 September 1956, no. 2 [lent by
Kunsthandel P. de Boer].
Oxford, Ashmolean Museum of Art, on loan with the permanent collection, December
2009–January 2011 [lent by the present owner].
Philadelphia, Philadelphia Museum of Art, “Dutch Treat,” 11 October 2011–6 January 2012[lent by the present owner].
Leiden, Lakenhal Museum, “Gerrit Dou: The Leiden Collection from New York,” 9 March–31
August 2014 [lent by the present owner].
Ithaca, Cornell University, Herbert F. Johnson Museum, “An Eye For Detail: Dutch Painting
from the Leiden Collection,” September 2014–May 2015 [lent by the present owner].
Dordrecht, Dordrechts Museum, “Work, Pray & Admire: New Views on Calvinism and Art,”
11 November 2018–26 May 2019 [lent by the present owner].
Kingston, Queen’s University, Agnes Etherington Art Centre, “Leiden circa 1630: Rembrandt
Emerges,” 24 August–1 December 2019; Edmonton, Art Gallery of Alberta, 7 March–2 July
2020; Regina, MacKenzie Art Gallery, 22 August 2020–3 January 2021; Hamilton, Art Galleryof Hamilton, 13 February–30 May 2021, no. 14 [lent by the present owner].

References
Smith, John. A Catalogue Raisonnè of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch, Flemish, andFrench Painters. 9 vols. London, 1829–42, 7:141–42, no. 417 (as by Rembrandt).
Hofstede de Groot, Cornelis. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch
Painters of the Seventeenth Century Based on the Work of John Smith. Edited and translatedby Edward G. Hawke, 6: 196, no. 343. 8 vols. London, 1907–28. Originally published as
Beschreibendes und kritisches Verzeichnis der Werke der hervorragendsten höllandischen© 2020 The Leiden Collection

Two Old Men Disputing (“St. Peter and St. Paul”)
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Maler des XVII. Jahrhunderts. 10 vols. Esslingen and Paris, 1907–28.
Von Bode, Wilhelm. “Ein neuaufgefundenes Jugendwerk Rembrandts.” Zeitschrift fürbildende Kunst 58 (1924/25, N.F. 34): 1–4 (as by Rembrandt).
Akademie der Künste. Gemälde alter Meister aus Berliner Besitz. Ausstellung in der
Akademie der Künste. Exh. cat. Berlin, Akademie der Künste. Berlin, 1925, 50, no. 313 (as byRembrandt).
Bauch, Kurt. Die Kunst des jungen Rembrandt. Heidelberg, 1933, 78, 82, 83, no. 75, 195, n.
36.
Bredius, Abraham. Rembrandt. Gemälde. Vienna, 1935, 18, no. 424 (as by Rembrandt).
Bredius, Abraham. The Paintings of Rembrandt. London, 1937, 24, no. 424 (as byRembrandt).
Hamann, Richard. Rembrandt. Berlin, 1948, 208 (as by Rembrandt).
Drie Rembrandts in de jaren 1953–1956 verkocht door de Kunsthandel P. de Boer
Amsterdam. Exh. cat. Delft, Stedelijk Museum het Prinsenhof. Delft, 1956 (as by Rembrandt).
Bauch, Kurt. Der frühe Rembrandt und sein Zeit: Studien zur geschichtlichen Bedeutungseines Frühstils. Berlin, 1960, 143–48, no. 111a, no. 112, 259, n. 106–7 (as by Rembrandt).
Bauch, Kurt. Rembrandt: Gemälde. Berlin, 1966, no. 6 (as by Rembrandt).
Laus, Jan. Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe, Katalog Alte Meister bis 1800. Karlsruhe, 1966,
247, no. 1789, as by Rembrandt.
Fritz, Rolf. Gemälde Alter Meister. Dortmund, 1967, no. 77 (as “Elias und Elisa” by
Rembrandt).
Bredius, Abraham. Rembrandt: The Complete Edition of the Paintings. Edited by by Horst
Gerson, 340, 587, no. 424. London, 1969 (as “Elias und Elisa” by Rembrandt).
Hamann, Richard. Rembrandt. Edited by Werner Sumowski, 208, 446, no. 4. Berlin, 1969 (asa copy after Rembrandt).
Sumowski, Werner. “Kritische Bemerkungen zur neuesten Gemäldekritik.” In Neue Beiträge
zur Rembrandt-Forschung. Edited by Otto von Simson and Jan Kelch. Berlin, 1973, 95 (as byRembrandt).
Bolten, Jaap and Bolten-Rempt. The Hidden Rembrandt. Oxford, 1978, 172, no. 27.
Stichting Foundation Rembrandt Research Project. A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings. Vol. 1,
1625–1631. Edited by Josua Bruyn et al., 524–528, no. C 13. The Hague, Boston, andLondon, 1982 (as an eighteenth-century Rembrandt imitation).
Sumowski, Werner. Gemälde der Rembrandt-Schüler in vier Bänden. 6 vols. Landau andPfalz, 1983–94, 4:2948, 2998, no. 1931 0as by School of Rembrandt, possibly Willem dePoorter).
Van de Wetering, Ernst, et al. A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings. Vol. 4: Self© 2020 The Leiden Collection

Two Old Men Disputing (“St. Peter and St. Paul”)
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Portraits. Stichting Foundation Rembrandt Research Project. Dordrecht, 2005, 627–28, no. C
13 (as circle of Rembrandt or Jan Lievens).
Bijl, Martin. “Gerrit Dou as a Pupil of Rembrandt.” In Rembrandt and his Circle: Insights andDiscoveries. Edited by Stephanie S. Dickey, 178–79, no. 7.10 (as attributed to Gerrit Dou).
Amsterdam, 2017.
Eekhout, Marianne. Werk, bid & bewonder: Een nieuwe kijk op kunst en calvinisme. Exh. cat.
Dordrecht, Dordrechts Museum. Dordrecht, 2018, 35, illustrated.
Coutré, Jacquelyn N., Ed. Leiden circa 1630: Rembrandt Emerges. Exh. cat. Kingston, Agnes
Etherington; Edmonton, Art Gallery of Alberta; Hamilton, Art Gallery of Hamilton. Kingston,
2019, 182-85, no. 14.

Versions
Engraved

1. Pietro Monaco (1707–72), after Rembrandt, Eliseo che predise I Regi attentati contro sestesso, ca. 1730–39, engraving, 505 x 363 mm, British Museum, London.

Versions and Copies

1. After Rembrandt, probably contemporary, Two Scholars Disputing, oil on panel, 39.5 x 33 cm,
Staatliche Kunsthalle, Karlsruhe, inv. no. 1798.

2. After Rembrandt, probably contemporary, Two Scholars Disputing, current whereabouts
unknown, formerly in the Lahmann Collection, Weisser Hirsch, Dresden.

Technical Summary
The painting was executed on a single plank with a vertical grain. The plank is oak, from the Baltic
region, with a fell date of 1601 and an earliest probable use date of 1609.[1] The panel has been
thinned and adhered to a supplemental wooden support, which is comprised of four verticallygrained boards. Thin wooden shims have been attached to the left and right edges with tongue
and groove joins. There is evidence that a cradle was once attached to the reverse of the
supplemental support. Fifteen dark rectangles, indicating the areas of the wood that were notcovered by the cradle members, are visible on the reverse of the panel.
The panel was prepared with a light-colored ground that is visible where it stops at the edges of
the wood. It was thinly and evenly applied. The paint was built up in successive layers. The X© 2020 The Leiden CollectionPowered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

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radiograph shows an earlier composition with a standing figure and a seated figure in larger
format than the current composition. It is unclear if this indicates an earlier composition altogether,or just artist’s changes to the current composition. The head of the seated man in the earlier
composition is slightly higher and to the right of the head of the seated man in the current
composition. There is low impasto along the contours of the earlier figures. In raking light, thecontours of another larger standing man are visible between the open book and the man facing
the viewer.
Infrared photography[2] reveals several slight artist’s changes: the shape of the upper portion of
the figure’s head facing the viewer appears to have been enlarged twice, the same figure’s
proper left hand has been shifted further toward the back of the book, the beard of the figure seenin profile has been made thinner, and the length of the two pages dangling over the table edge
have been shortened and moved to the right.
The painting is in very good condition. There are three previously restored vertical splits along the
top and bottom edges of the panel. These were probably created by the cradle, as it would haverestricted the panel’s movement. The panel exhibits vertical planar distortion along these splits,
creating a washboard effect.
Further technical information about this artwork is available in The Rembrandt Database.

Technical Summary Endnotes

1. Peter Klein, dendrochronological report, 14 January 2007; Ian Tyers, dendrochronologicalreport, September 2008.
2. Infrared photographs were taken at 780nm, 850nm, and 1000nm.

© 2020 The Leiden Collection