Medea: Or the Marriage of Jason and Creusa

Rembrandt van Rijn

1648

Etching and drypoint on paper

Dallas Museum of Art

The story depicted in this etching revolves around Jason, the leader of the Argonauts, and his abduction of Creusa, the beautiful, young, and wealthy daughter of Creon, King of Corinth. When Jason’s wife, the sorceress Medea, learns of Jason’s plans to marry Creusa, she seeks revenge by poisoning Creusa and her father and killing her own two sons. In this illustration, Rembrandt took considerable artistic liberties as he invented a scene that is not described in any line of the play: the marriage of Jason and Creusa. Set in a church, the subject might be mistaken for a biblical scene if it were not for the female figure in the foreg