 Self-Portrait 1660 |
Rembrandt van Rijin (1606-1669) painted more than one hundred self-portraits, and together they constitute a visual autobiography (don't panic, we are not going to look at all 100, in fact we'll just look at three). They chronicle Rembrandt's journey through life from youth to old age. If we compare his early self-portrait from 1640 to the one from 1661 when he was 55, we can see the differences in Rembrandt's self-image over a twenty-one year period.
Why would he do that, was he that egotistical? No. He was a working artist who made his living painting portraits, individual and group, and like any other artist he was constantly striving to improve his art. It's true that everyone seemed to be buying paintings, but there were a lot of artists out there and to stay on top you had to be constantly improving. You don't really think those top surfers, or tennis players, or musicians stay on top by just sitting around between performances or competitions do you? Practice, practice, and more practice. So what was Rembrandt practicing? He obviously had "learned his trade" by 1640. Well, what's the difference between a "snapshot" and a photograph? Or listening to a musician who hits all the notes and keeps time and the guy who plays the same music, hits all the notes, keeps time and blows you away... it takes more than technique to make a great 'anything'. So what was Rembrandt practicing?
His one major theme/subject was the individual. We are more than just a series of anatomical parts put together in a certain way and it was that "more" that he was after, that essence which makes a human being unique and then how to convey that to others through the media of painting. Rembrandt was the first artist to so thoroughly explore the psychological side of being a human being. And who better to practice on, who's psyche would be as well known as your own. In one sense, Rembrandt's self-portraits can be seen as the triumph of Humanism; for Rembrandt, nothing is more important than man, not in the abstract, but as an individual, as it was for Manetti two hundred years before (see the 2nd page of the Early Renaissnce Lectures).
 Self-Portrait c.1640 |
 Self-Portrait c.1652 |
 Self-Portrait c.1661 |
All those new businesses wanted a corporate portrait and all the old militia units who had fought the Spanish and still got together for a yearly reunions wanted a group portrait to hang in their meeting halls and since everyone in the painting was paying part of the cost, everyone wanted to be seen! Rembrandt came up with his "group action" portrait... none of that lining up like your elementary school class photo. Besides, these were "men of action" who had fought wars, built corporations, created a democratic republic and literally built a country by building dikes and pumping out the sea water to create dry land. Lining up like marionettes didn't fit with the dynamics of the men or the times, and Rembrandt was nothing if not in tune with his time.
 Captain Frans Banning Cocq Mustering His Company (The Night Watch). 1642 (cut down from it's original size), 11'11" x 14'4" Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
 Three Crosses. 1663 Etching, fourth state |
 Syndics of the Cloth Guild 1662 Oil on canvas 6'2" x 9'2" Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
As mentioned earlier,
religious art commissioned by and for the church, especially in Calvinist
areas, was against religious policy.
But some religious work was done for individuals, for personal use. The
work shown above, The Three Crosses, (be sure to read over pages
146-50 in text) is typical of the quiet human compassion that Rembrandt
brought to his biblical subjects.
Religious works such as these are the exception rather than the
rule in Protestant Europe. The work of our next group, the so-called Little
Dutch Masters, is typical of the majority of Protestant art. They
also represent another change in the art world... specialization. In the
past, the "artist" was often painter, sculptor, architect, poet, stage
designer, etc.; whatever his patron wanted him to undertake. But with
the new Protestant society, the painter (sculpture as a major media did
not lend itself to the new economic conditions) found himself on the "open
market" and having to deal with the "public" and thus dealing with public
taste.
The Little Dutch Masters
Our
new bourgeoisie wanted paintings of themselves at play/parties, their
possessions and their country. The artist found that it was best to specialize
in one area rather than try to be a "jack of all trades and master of
none," as the new buying public could shop around for the best painter
of whatever they were interested in. And our Little Dutch Masters were
just that: the best in their own area of expertise be it landscape, still-life,
portraiture, or genre.
|
Portraits
by Frans
Hall (1580 - 1660)
|
  |
Hals
portraits have that typical Baroque "snap shot" quality to them, as
though you have just entered the room with your camera and your "subject"
just looks up to say hi. Go back and take a look at Rembrandt's Syndics
of the Cloth Guild and you will see that same "snap shot" quality to it.
It's the Baroque technique of involving the observer directly in the picture's
space that results in this sense of immediacy.
|
Landscapes
by Jacob
van Ruisdail (1628-1682)
|
  Ruisdail transformed the commonplace into the picturesque. Above: The Pond Right: View of Haarlem |
The idea of the "picturesque" is important to understand. The portraits
are not just "raw data"... your photo on your drivers license from which
you can be identified, or a recording of your possessions for insurance
purposes, or a photograph of you house so someone can find you are "raw
data" information. Picturesque paintings are "idealizations" or "dramatized"
interpetations of reality seen in the best possible light, kind of the
travel brochure of Holland.
|
Still
Life by
Willem Kalf (1619-93)
|
  Above: Stll Life With Drinking Horn Right: Still Life |
| Genre by Jan Vermeer (1623-1675) |
 Women Holding a Balance |
Picturesque, but with a twist... Vermeer's allegory is certainly not
as flamboyant as Ruben's, but it was understood just as well by our Protestant
Dutch.
Notice the Last Judgment hanging on the wall in the background, Christ
"weighing" the fate of human souls, as the woman in the foreground weighs
her jewelry. What might the content of this painting be?
And on our right, Vermeer has again transformed everyday life into
a picturesque vision of order and balance, but again with twist...
 Kitchen Maid |
Notice the mouse trap on the floor in the picture on the right (the wood
box). Materialism was seen as the Devil's mouse trap. If you could afford
a maid you were probably well off financially, but what about spiritually
?
In a society that equated material wealth as a sign of Godliness, might
one not become too attached to the material side of the equation?
| Baroque Characteristics shared by both the Catholic and Protestant areas: |
1- A strong theatrical/dramatic quality. |
2- Rejection of Renaissance idealism in favor of a more naturalistic approach. |
3- Use of a more dynamic composition favoring a strong diagonal movement as opposed to the more stable triangular composition of the Renaissance. |
Lynn University Art Appreciation
Information provided by: http://www.machanley.com