The Dutch Golden Age
Much of Western Europe has been united during the past twelve centuries. The unification began with the Carolingan or Frankish Empire and continued with the Holy Roman/Hapsburg Empire. This unified Europe, which only finally ended in the seventeenth century, is the historical reason for the modern impulse to European Union. Some German and Italian historians now call the period from 1700 to the 1990s the “European Civil War”.
 |
| The Frankish Empire c.880 |
In 1519 the Spanish and Holy Roman Empires became united under Charles V, the first Hapsburg emperor. The “Spanish Main” was in reality the possession of the early EU. In 1554-5 Charles divided the empire, giving Spain to his son Philip and the Holy Roman Empire to his brother Ferdinand.
Rembrandt Van Rijn
Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (1606 – 1669) was born in Leiden in the Dutch Republic . His father was a miller and his mother was the daughter of a baker. He was the ninth born child in the family.
The family was religious: his mother was a catholic and his father Dutch Reformed Church.
At the age of 14, in 1620, Rembrandt enrolled at Leiden University but left after a few months. Between 1620 and 1624 he was a student of Jacob van Swanenburg, a painter of historical paintings. In 1624 he went to Amsterdam to study with Pieter Lastman for six months and Jacob Pynas for a few months. He returned to Leiden and set up his own studio, sharing a workshop with Jan Lievens.
In 1629 Constantijn Huygens, a Dutch statesman, procured commissions for Rembrandt from the Dutch Royal Court and Prince Frederik Hendrik bought many of Rembrandt's pictures until the relationship ended in 1646.
In 1631 Rembrandt moved back to Amsterdam, staying in the lodgings of the art dealer Hendrick van Uylenburgh. At this time he was the most feted artist in Holland. He fell for his landlord's cousin, Saskia, and they were married in 1634.
They had three children between 1634 and 1636, all of whom died shortly after birth. Their fourth child, Titus, was born in 1641 and survived into adulthood but Saskia died in 1642.
Saskia came with a dowry but they rapidly spent this money, buying a large house which entailed borrowing 13000 guilders (the annual wage for an average artist was about 500 guilders). Rembrandt also spent freely on art.
Immediately after his wife's death he hired Geertje Dircx as a wetnurse and maid. He fell in love with her and they lived together for six years. However, Saskia's inheritance depended on not re-marrying so Rembrandt did not marry Geertje. The relationship ended in 1649 after Rembrandt took a fancy to a new maid, Hendrickje Stoffels who was hired around 1647. Geertje sued Rembrandt for breach of promise and was awarded 200 guilders a year as compensation. However, Geertje was not happy with this settlement and harassed Rembrandt. The harassment seems to have been excessive and Rembrandt was able to enlist Geertje's own brother, nephew and neighbours to support a case for her to be condemned for 12 years in a women's correctional institute/insane asylum, she served five before being released.
Rembrandt and Hendrikje lived together until Hendrikje's death of the plague in 1663 at the age of 37, six years before Rembrandt died.
In the Dutch economic depression of the 1650s art commissions dried up and Rembrandt went bankrupt. He narrowly avoided prison but was forced to sell all of his assets, including his house in 1658. Hendrikje and Titus set up an art shop and employed Rembrandt as artist.
Rembrandt's Art
Rembrandt's oil painting consists of historical, biblical and allegorical works, portraits, group paintings and a remarkable series of self portraits. His pallette tends to darken during the period after 1640. He often used strong shadow to provide contrast in his paintings, a technique known as chiaroscuro, but only in one or two paintings does he use violent contrasts of light and dark areas – a technique known as tenebrism.
Historical, biblical and allegorical work 1624-40.
Musical Company
Musical company, 1626, is a tour de force in the painting of fabrics. It was possibly a display piece to demonstrate his skill when he first set up his own studio in Leiden..
Parable of the Rich Man 1627
In The Parable of the Rich Man Rembrandt is exploring the effect of candle light. It is both a study in light and composition, the candle glow creating a three dimensional effect. The single light also suggests that this small glow is the only warmth in the man's life.
Simeon in the Temple 1631
This story is taken from Luke's gospel where Mary and Joseph present Jesus to God. Joseph has the requisite two pigeons as an offering. Simeon takes hold of the baby, recognising him as the Messiah.
Andromeda Chained to the Rocks 1631
This painting was based on the story in Ovid's Metamorphosis where Andromeda, the daughter of the Ethiopian king, is offered as a sacrifice to placate a sea monster. In the story she is saved by Perseus.
Notice how Rembrandt portrays the nude realistically, eschewing the ideal of feminine beauty preferred by most artists. This gives Andromeda vulnerability, real flesh that could be torn.
Danae 1636
Danae was the mother of Perseus. She was visited by Zeus who impregnated her. Again Rembrandt treats the nude realistically. In this case the body was that of his wife, Saskia, and the head was repainted to be that of Hendrikje, his later partner. The picture was 10 feet by 8 feet in size.
Danae is on display at the Hermitage, it was damaged in 1985 with suphuric acid and subsequently restored.
Rembrandt's Portraits
Rembrandt is particularly admired for his portraits. Theodore Rousseau, a Curator of Paintings at the Metropolitan Museum of Art sums up the allure of Rembrandt:
What is the predominant quality of Rem-
brandt's portraiture? What is the explanation
of the impression his portraits make on us?
Rembrandt's approach to all his subjects is,
it seems to me, warm, tender, simple, and
human. But what he conveys is not material.
It has to do with those aspects of the human
character which are intangible, which are felt
by sympathy and sensitivity rather than seen.
His portraits are often surprisingly mature and, once we surpass our own feelings of disappointment at a lack of classical beauty or sublime import they educate us with their humanity.
The Lady with a Pink 1660s
The lady in this painting may well be Elizabeth Delft, she is offering a pink carnation which is a symbol of love and marriage. Rembrandt painted another portrait at about the same time called “Man with a Magnifying Glass” that may well portray her intended.
Portrait of van Haesje Jacobsdr van Cleyburgh 1634
Haesje was the wife of a Rotterdam brewer. The portrayal is entirely realistic and shows the sitter wrinkles and all.
The Night Watch 1642
The Night Watch is, perhaps, Rembrandt's most famous painting. It was originally called: “The Company of captain Frans Banning Cocq and lieutenant Willem van Ruytenburch preparing to march out.” It shows a company of the civic militia, the company were Arquebusiers- in Dutch called “Kloveniers”, the arquebus being a smooth bore, front loaded forerunner of the musket. It was commissioned by the whole company who all contributed to the 1600 guilders that Rembrandt was paid (median wage was about 400 per annum). The painting was first hung in the Musketeers' Meeting Hall in Amsterdam. The girl is usually interpreted as a company mascot. Because she carries chicken claws that are symbolic of the Kloveniers and the ceremonial drinking horn of the group. Notice how the central figures of the Captain and Lieutenant are statuesque and calm amidst a chaos of action. The painting has a remarkably balanced composition – it was also enormous, being 3.6 by 4.3 metres. It is difficult to decide whether the painting is poking fun at this amateur militia or genuinely portraying the enthusiasm of amateurs.
The Wardens of the Amsterdam Drapers’ Guild, Known as ‘The Syndics’ 1662
The syndics were inspectors of the quality of dyed cloth. The painting was commissioned by the Guild and hung in the Stallhof, the draper's guild hall. Rembrandt has cleverly painted the group as if they have been gently disturbed so that they are all looking towards the artist.
Girl Leaning on a Stone Window Cill 1645
This is one of Rembrandt's finest paintings. It shows a pretty child but also eczma or ringworm on her face. It captures the transition from childhood to pubescence, the artist somehow including his own affectionate amusement at the change.
Self Portraits
1629, aged 23
1635 aged 29
1659 aged 53
1666 aged 60
1669 aged 63, year of his death
The Rembrandt Business
Rembrandt's paintings are some of the most valuable in the art market and have been so for a long time. “Portrait of a Man with Arms Akimbo” sold for $33.3m in 2009. The problem with Rembrandt's art is that there are numerous Old Master paintings that come from the studio of Rembrandt or that were painted by admirers of Rembrandt in the seventeenth century and there are also many fakes painted in later centuries.
Recently there was a tiny self portrait , called “Rembrandt Laughing” that had been attributed to “follower of Rembrandt” that was valued at $3000. It was re-attributed to Rembrandt and valued at $30-40m.
These huge price tags for genuine Rembrandts led to the formation of the Rembrandt Research Project (RRP) in the Netherlands in 1968. This was charged with producing a definitive list of Rembrandt's paintings, published as “A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings”. In 1900 there were about 600-650 works attributed to Rembrandt but the RRP reduced the number of authorised Rembrandt's to less than 300. This would be a low figure for an artist who painted commercially for about 45 years and the low number in itself has led to scepticism about the Corpus. Paintings that are in the official list are probably Rembrandt's but those not included may still be by the Old Master.
A good example of this problem is “Man with a Golden Helmet” which was de-attributed in 1985. In older works on Rembrandt this painting was regarded as one of his finest pieces. The huge problem here is that Rembrandt ran a studio employing many pupils and he, himself, used numerous techniques during his lifetime. Worse still, it was routine practice for pictures to be cut to fit a frame or space and even the artist's signature might be removed, to be replaced by a copy so that everyone would know that the work was a Rembrandt. The principle reasons for attributing “Man with a Golden Helmet” to a pupil of Rembrandt were that the paint used was not typical of Rembrandt, the brush strokes were not typical and the signature was suspect. However, many paintings had already been de-attributed on these grounds so the meaning of “typical” is now suspect, the corpus no longer contains atypical works so even small deviations from the norm might now lead to de-attribution.
On the other hand, Rembrandt may have been happy to sell pictures based on his brand name but executed by others. This then would lead us to worry about the 250 or so “real” Rembrandts – were these all pictures that the pupils got “right”?
