Ovid's Philemon and Baucis, Rembrandt van Rijn

In Book VIII of Metamorphoses Ovid tells a touching story of an old married couple - Baucis and Philemon, visited by Jupiter and his son Mercury in human guise. The gods search for shelter in the village but find all doors shut in their faces except for the little cottage of Baucis and Philemon where despite the couple’s extreme poverty, the Gods are treated to a warm meal, a bed and plenty of kindness.

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When the couple discovers that their wine bowl keeps magically refilling itself, they realise that they are in the presence of gods. Terrified, they offer Jupiter and Mercury their one and only goose, but Jupiter magnanimously refuses.

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Rembrandt bathes Jupiter and Mercury in majestic light, they are much larger than Baucis and Philemon, their splendid robes are threaded with silver and gold. The old couple looks frightened. Their fear is palpable, Rembrandt conveys it with virtuosity. This is the moment – they can ask the gods anything they like, any wish will be granted. This is what the couple asks:

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“since we have spent our happy years together, may one hour take us both away; let neither outlive the other, that I may never see the burial of my wife, nor she perform that office for me.”

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In classic Ovidian Metamorphoses style the gods decide to annihilate the inhospitable village, turn the old couple’s cottage into a temple and Baucis and Philemon are turned into trees that guard the temple.

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Image: Philemon and Baucis, Rembrandt van Rijn, 1658, oil on panel, National Gallery of Art, Washington