This essay examines Rembrandt's double portraits of the 1630's within the larger context of emerging Dutch marriage portraiture. In them, he attempts to create images of marital relationship through a portrait vocabulary that had been formulated for the undomestic social institution of the Renaissance court. The Portrait of a Couple (Gardner Museum) reveals tension between public and private ideals of social form. But The Shipbuilder and His Wife and the etched Self-portrait with Saskia, which follow, successfully adapt courtly portrait formulas to domestic meanings. Far from being a hindrance, the social implications of Renaissance portrait conventions provided metaphors to articulate some of the most advanced ideas on marriage of his time.