The curious thing about the
reference to “The Pilgrims of Emmaus” by Rembrandt is that the title of the
painting is actually “The Pilgrims ‘at’ Emmaus.” This may be a clumsy error or
inaccurate knowledge on Nabokov’s part, but I thought this kind of mistake
highly unlikely of Nabokov. Meanwhile, there is another painting called “The
Pilgrims of Emmaus” by Paolo Veronese. This work also contains Jesus with a
“celestial expression of eyes and mouth.” Rembradnt’s painting seems more
in line with “Mother and Child” mentioned right before, with its not-so-vibrant
color scheme, but regardless of what Nabokov intended to refer to, the face of
Jesus in both paintings is quite illuminating.
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Rembrandt or Veronese? | Vladimir
Nabokov |