Rembrandt harmenszoon van rijn
The largest representative of the golden age, artist, engraver, great master of chiaroscuro - and all this in one name Rembrandt.
Rembrandt was born on July 15, 1606 in Leiden. This great Dutch artist was able to embody in his works the whole range of human experiences with such an emotional intensity that the fine arts did not know before him.
A life
He grew up in the large family of a wealthy mill owner, Harmen Gerritzon van Rijn. Among other things, there were two more houses in the estate of the Rhine baths, and he also received a significant dowry from his wife Cornelia Neltier. The mother of the future artist was the daughter of a baker and was versed in cooking. The mother's family, even after the Dutch revolution, remained faithful to the Catholic faith.
In Leiden, Rembrandt attended a Latin school at the university, but did not like the exact sciences, showed the greatest interest in painting. Realizing this fact, at the age of 13, his parents sent Rembrandt to study fine arts with the Leiden historical painter Jacob van Swanenbürch, who was a Catholic. Rembrandt's works, diverse in genre and subject matter, are imbued with the ideas of morality, spiritual beauty and dignity of an ordinary person, an understanding of the incomprehensible complexity of his inner world, the versatility of his intellectual wealth, the depth of his emotional experiences. Very little information has come down to us about Jacob, so historians and art critics cannot say for sure about the influence of Svanenberch on the creative manner of Rembrandt.
Then in 1623 he studied in Amsterdam with the then fashionable painter Peter Lastman, after which, returning to Leiden, in 1625, together with his fellow countryman Jan Lievens, opened his own workshop.
Peter Lastman completed an internship in Italy and specialized in historical, mythological and biblical subjects. When Rembrandt opened a workshop and started recruiting students, in a short time he became significantly famous. If you look at the artist's first works, you can immediately understand that Lastman's style - a passion for variegation and pettiness of execution, had a huge impact on the young artist. For example, his work "The Stoning of St. Stephen "(1629)," A Scene from Ancient History "(1626) and" The Baptism of the Eunuch "(1626), very bright, unusually colorful, Rembrandt seeks to carefully write out every detail of the material world. Almost all the heroes appear before the viewer dressed in fancy oriental outfits, sparkle with jewels, which creates an atmosphere of majesty, splendor, festivity
In 1628, the twenty-two-year-old artist was recognized as an "eminently famous" master, a renowned portrait painter.
The painting "Judas Returns the Silversmiths" (1629) - aroused an enthusiastic response from the famous art connoisseur Konstantin Huygens, Stadtholder's secretary Frederick Hendrik of Orange: "... this body trembling with pathetic trembling is what I prefer to good taste of all times."
Thanks to the connections of Constantine, Rembrandt soon acquired rich admirers of art: due to the mediation of Hagens, the Prince of Orange ordered several religious works from the artist, such as Christ before Pilate (1636).
Real success for the artist comes in Amsterdam. June 8, 1633 Rembrandt meets the daughter of a wealthy burgher Saskia van Eilenbürch and gains a strong position in society. The artist painted most of the canvases while in the capital of the Netherlands.
Amsterdam - a bustling port and industrial city, where goods and wonders from all over the world flocked, where people got rich on trade and banking deals, where outlaws of feudal Europe rushed in search of refuge and where the well-being of wealthy burghers coexisted with depressing poverty, binds strong ties with the artist ...
The Amsterdam period of Rembrandt's work began with overwhelming success, which brought him "The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Tulpa" (1632, The Hague, Mauritshuis), which changed the tradition of the Dutch group portrait. Rembrandt contrasted the usual demonstration of people of the general profession posing for the artist with the drama of a freely decided scene, the participants of which - members of the guild of surgeons, listening to their colleague, are united intellectually and spiritually by active involvement in the process of scientific research.
Rembrandt is inspired by the beauty of his beloved, so he often paints her portraits. Three days after the wedding, van Rijn painted a woman in a silver pencil wearing a wide-brimmed hat. Saskia appeared in the paintings of the Dutchman in a cozy home environment. The image of this plump woman appears on many canvases, for example, the mysterious girl in the painting "Night Watch" strongly resembles the artist's beloved.
The thirties in the life of Rembrandt were a period of fame, wealth and family happiness. He received many orders, was surrounded by students, was passionate about collecting works of Italian, Flemish and Dutch painters, antique sculpture, minerals, sea plants, ancient weapons, objects of oriental art; when working on paintings, the collection's exhibits often served the artist as a prop.
Rembrandt's works of this period are extremely varied; they testify to the tireless, sometimes painful search for artistic comprehension of the spiritual and social essence of man and nature, and demonstrate tendencies that relentlessly, step by step, bring the artist into conflict with society.
In portraits "for himself" and self-portraits, the artist freely experiments with composition and effects of chiaroscuro, changes the tonality of colors, dresses his models in fantastic or exotic clothes, varies poses, gestures, accessories ("Flora", 1634, St. Petersburg, State Hermitage Museum ).
In 1635, the famous painting based on the biblical theme "The Sacrifice of Abraham" was painted, which was appreciated in secular society.
In 1642, van Rijn received an order from the Shooting Society for a group portrait to decorate a new building with canvas. The painting was mistakenly called "Night Watch". It was stained with soot, and only in the 17th century did researchers come to the conclusion that the action unfolding on the canvas takes place in the daytime.
Rembrandt thoroughly depicted every detail of the musketeers in motion: as if time stopped at a certain moment when the militias left the dark courtyard for van Rijn to capture them on canvas.
The customers did not like that the Dutch painter departed from the canons that developed in the 17th century. Then the group portraits were ceremonial, and the participants were depicted from the front without any statics.
According to scientists, this painting was the reason for the artist's bankruptcy in 1653, as it scared off potential clients.
The tragic changes in the personal fate of Rembrandt (the death of newborn children, mother, in 1642 - the illness and death of Saskia, who left him with a nine-month-old son Titus), deterioration in his financial situation due to his stubborn unwillingness to sacrifice freedom of spirit and creativity to please the changeable tastes of burghers, exacerbated and exposed the gradually brewing conflict between the artist and society.
Information about the private life of Rembrandt in the 1640s. few have survived in the documents. Of the students of this period, only Nicholas Mas of Dordrecht is known. Apparently, the artist continued to live on a grand scale, as before. The late Saskia's family expressed concern over how he disposed of her dowry. Titus's nanny, Gertier Dierks, sued him for breaking a promise to marry; to settle this incident, the artist had to fork out.
In the late 1640s, Rembrandt became friends with his young maid Hendrickje Stoffels, whose image flickers in many portrait works of this period: (Flora (1654), Bathing Woman (1654), Hendrickje at the Window (1655)). The parish council condemned Hendrickje for "sinful cohabitation" when, in 1654, her daughter Cornelia was born with the artist. During these years, Rembrandt departed from themes that have a grandiose national or universal sound.
The artist worked for a long time on engraved portraits of the burgomaster Jan Six (1647) and other influential burghers. All the engraving techniques and techniques he knew were used to produce the elaborate etching Christ Healing the Sick, better known as the One Hundred Guilder Leaf, for such a huge price for the 17th century it was once sold. He worked on this etching, striking with the subtlety of the cut-and-paste game, for seven years, from 1643 to 1649.
In 1653, experiencing financial difficulties, the artist transferred almost all of his property to his son Titus, after which he declared bankruptcy in 1656. After the sale in 1657-58. houses and property (an interesting catalog of Rembrandt's art collection has been preserved), the artist moved to the outskirts of Amsterdam, to the Jewish quarter, where he spent the rest of his life.
The death of Titus in 1668 was one of the last blows of fate for the artist; he himself passed away a year later.
Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn died in October 1669. He was 63 years old. He was old, sick and poor. The notary did not have to spend a lot of time compiling an inventory of the artist's property. The inventory was brief: "three worn sweatshirts, eight handkerchiefs, ten berets, painting supplies, one Bible."
To artina
Return of the prodigal son
The famous painting "The Return of the Prodigal Son", one of the last works of Rembrandt. It was written in the year of his death, and became the pinnacle of the manifestation of his talent.
This is the largest painting by Rembrandt on a religious theme. Painting by Rembrandt on the plot of the New Testament parable of the prodigal son.
We find the parable of the prodigal son in the Gospel of Luke. She tells about a young man who left his father's house and squandered his inheritance. In idleness, debauchery and drunkenness, he spent his days until he found himself in the barnyard, where he ate from the same trough with pigs. In a desperate situation and complete poverty, the young man returns to his father, ready to become his last slave. But instead of contempt, he finds a royal reception, instead of anger - an all-forgiving, deep and tender fatherly love.
1669 year. Rembrandt plays a human drama in front of the viewer. The paints lie on the canvas in thick strokes. They are dark. The artist does not care about secondary characters, even if there are a lot of them. Attention is again riveted on the father and son. The old father, hunched over with grief, faces the viewer. In this face there is pain, and eyes tired of crying out tears, and the happiness of a long-awaited meeting. The son has his back turned to us. He buried himself as a child in the royal robe of his father. We don't know what his face expresses. But cracked heels, a vagrant's bare skull, poor attire say enough. As well as the hands of the father, squeezing the shoulders of the young man. Through the peace of these hands, forgiving and supporting, Rembrandt for the last time tells the world a universal parable about wealth, passions and vices, repentance and forgiveness. “… I will get up, go to my father and say to him: Father! I have sinned against heaven and before you, and am no longer worthy to be called your son; accept me as your mercenary. He got up and went to his father. And while he was still far away, his father saw him and took pity; and running, fell on his neck and kissed him. "
In addition to the father and son, 4 more characters are depicted in the picture. These are dark silhouettes that are hardly distinguishable against a dark background, but who they are remains a mystery. Some called them "brothers and sisters" of the protagonist. It is characteristic that Rembrandt avoids conflict: the parable speaks of the jealousy of an obedient son, and the harmony of the picture is not disturbed by anything.
Van Gogh very accurately said about Rembrandt: “You have to die several times in order to paint like this ... Rembrandt penetrates the secret so deeply that he speaks about objects for which there are no words in any language. That is why Rembrandt is called: a magician. And this is not an easy craft. "
The night Watch
The title under which the group portrait of Rembrandt is traditionally known "Speech by the rifle company of Captain Frans Banning Kok and Lieutenant Willem van Ruutenbürg", written in 1642.
The Dutch master's canvas is fraught with many "surprises". Let's start with the fact that the usual name of the picture does not correspond to reality: the patrol depicted on it is actually not at all at night, but most that neither is daytime. It's just that Rembrandt's work was varnished several times, which is why it darkened a lot. In addition, for almost 100 years (from the beginning of the 18th to the beginning of the 19th century), the canvas adorned one of the halls of the Amsterdam City Hall, where it hung right in front of the fireplace, covered with soot year after year. It is not surprising that by the beginning of the 19th century the name "Night Watch" was firmly established behind the painting: by this time the history of its creation had been completely forgotten, and everyone was sure that the master had depicted precisely the dark time of the day. Only in 1947, during the restoration at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, where the painting is located to this day, it turned out that its color is incomparably lighter than it was commonly believed. Moreover, the short shadows cast by the characters indicate that the affair takes place between noon and 2 pm. However, the restorers did not remove all the layers of the dark varnish, fearing to damage the paint, so even now "Night Watch" is rather dim.
The real title of the painting is "Speech by the rifle company of Captain Frans Banning Kok and Lieutenant Wilhem van Reitenburg." This is a group portrait of a musketeer militia in one of the districts of Amsterdam. From 1618 to 1648 in Europe was the Thirty Years War, and the inhabitants of Dutch cities took up arms in order to defend their homes. Rembrandt's creation, along with portraits of other rifle companies, was supposed to decorate the main hall in Kloveniersdolen - the headquarters of the city riflemen. But the customers were disappointed: Rembrandt did not get a monumental ceremonial portrait, but a genre painting in which they could hardly find their own faces, often half hidden by other characters. Still would! After all, the artist, in addition to 18 customers (each of whom laid out about 100 gold guilders for his portrait - a very impressive amount at that time) squeezed another 16 people onto the canvas! Who they are is unknown.
Museum - Amsterdam History Museum?
Three crosses
One of the most famous etchings by Rembrandt, it has five states. Only the third was signed and dated, therefore, Rembrandt considered the rest intermediate. The fifth condition is very rare, with only five known.
The etching depicts the dramatic moment of Christ's death on the cross of Calvary, described in the gospels. In this etching, Rembrandt, on an unprecedented scale, used the technique of a chisel and a dry needle, which increased the contrast of the image.
On December 2, 2008 at Christie's auction this etching (IV state) was sold for 421,250 pounds sterling.
Descent from the cross
In 1814, Alexander I y of Empress Josephine acquired the Malmaison Gallery, which belonged to her. Some of the paintings came from the famous Kassel Gallery, including The Descent from the Cross. Previously, these canvases were the property of Madame de Roover in Delft and, along with other paintings from her collection, were bought by the Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel Ludwig VII. In 1806, his gallery was seized by Napoleon and donated to Josephine.
The successor to the Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel Ludwig VII, a former ally of Alexander I, presented a demand to the emperor in 1815 for the return of the paintings captured by Napoleon. This demand was resolutely rejected by Alexander I, who paid money for the paintings and in every possible way showed Josephine's attention to her daughter Hortense. In 1829, Hortense, who at that time held the title of Duchess of Saint-Leu, bought thirty paintings from the Malmaison Gallery.
The “Descent from the Cross” theme had a great iconographic tradition in European art. Her highest achievement was considered an altarpiece painting by Rubens in Antwerp Cathedral, widely known from Worstermann's engraving.
Rembrandt's creative thought wanders somewhere near this tradition, using it and at the same time constantly choosing other paths. Unusual for the previous development of European art, they are highly characteristic of the personal creative manner of Rembrandt not without reason "Descent from the Cross" outwardly so strongly resembles "The Disbelief of the Apostle Thomas."
Rubens portrayed the sublime sorrow of a group of majestic and beautiful people for a majestic and beautiful hero; Rembrandt has a hectic mass night scene. Numerous figures either retreat into darkness or fall into a ray of light, and it seems that the crowd moves, lives, grieving for the crucified and pitying his mother. There is nothing perfect in the appearance of people, many of them are rude, ugly. Their feelings are very strong, but these are the feelings of ordinary people, not enlightened by the sublime catharsis that is in Rubens' painting.
The dead Christ is the same person as they are; it is because of the power of their grief that his suffering and death take on special significance. The key to the content of the picture is, perhaps, not so much Christ as the person supporting him and pressing his cheek to him.
From an artistic point of view, the fractional, restless composition is inferior to the famous painting by Rubens, and to some of the works of Rembrandt himself, executed in the same years. For example, the less significant in its content "The Disbelief of the Apostle Thomas" seems to be outwardly more harmonious and holistic. However, in The Descent from the Cross, Rembrandt's understanding of biblical and evangelical themes is clearer.
The work of the young Rembrandt differs from its prototype in the most basic features. First of all, it is not created either formally or essentially as a prayer altar image. Its cabinet size is not addressed to the perception of the crowd, but to individual experience. This appeal to the feelings and consciousness of one person, the establishment of close emotional contact with the viewer forced the artist to create a completely new system of artistic means and techniques. Rembrandt saw the scene of the Gospel legend as a tragic real event, fundamentally depriving it of mystical and heroic pathos.
Striving for the utmost sincerity and truthfulness of the image, Rembrandt showed a close crowd of people near the cross, shocked with grief, seeking a kindred unity with each other in the face of a terrible death. Brown-olive tonal coloring united the whole composition, and the luminous flux highlighted its main semantic center dramatically sharply. The greatest depth of suffering is embodied in the image of the Mother of God, who fell unconscious with her thin, haggard face of a toiler. The second group of mourners is located at the left end of the spatial diagonal - women reverently lay the shroud, fulfilling their direct duty towards the deceased. Supported by the old man, the drooping body of Christ - the embodiment of tortured human flesh - evokes, above all, a feeling of deep compassion.
Jewish bride
One of the last and most mysterious paintings by Rembrandt. The name was given to it in 1825 by the Amsterdam collector Van der Hope. He mistakenly believed that it depicted a father giving his Jewish daughter a necklace for her wedding. Perhaps this is a custom-made portrait, but the clothes of the characters are clearly similar to the old, biblical ones, so the names were suggested as “Artaxerxes and Esther”, “Jacob and Rachel”, “Abram and Sarah”, “Boaz and Ruth”.
Saskia as Flora
A painting by Rembrandt, written in 1634, which probably depicts the artist's wife Saskia van Eilenbuch in the image of the ancient Italian goddess of flowers, blossom, spring and the fruits of the field Flora.
In 1633, Saskia van Eilenbürch became the bride of Rembrandt van Rijn. A charming portrait of young Saskia dressed as Flora is a mute but eloquent witness to this “time of spring and love” by the brilliant painter.
The pensive, but undoubtedly happy face of the girl is consistent with the feelings of the bride. She is no longer a playful child, carelessly looking at God's world. She has a serious task ahead of her: she has chosen a new path and she has to change her mind and feel much, much before she enters adulthood. The headdress and wand, entwined with flowers, undoubtedly indicate Flora, the ancient Roman goddess of spring. The goddess's outfit is painted with amazing skill, but the true greatness of Rembrandt's talent is manifested in the expression of tenderness that the artist gave to her face.
The beloved wife brought the light of happiness and heartfelt contentment into the lonely dwelling of a modest artist. Rembrandt loved to dress Saskia in velvet, silk and brocade, according to the custom of that time, he showered with diamonds and pearls, lovingly watching her lovely, young face win from a shiny outfit
Museum - State Hermitage
S til
Deeply humanistic in its essence and perfect in its unique artistic form, the work of Rembrandt has become one of the summits of the development of human civilization. Rembrandt's works, diverse in genre and subject matter, are imbued with the ideas of morality, spiritual beauty and dignity of an ordinary person, an understanding of the incomprehensible complexity of his inner world, the versatility of his intellectual wealth, the depth of his emotional experiences. Containing many unsolved mysteries, the paintings, drawings and etchings of this wonderful artist conquer with insightful psychological characteristics of the characters, philosophical acceptance of reality, convincing justification of unexpected artistic decisions. His interpretation of plots from the Bible, ancient myths, ancient legends and the past of his native country as really meaningful events in the history of man and society, deeply felt collisions of life of specific people opened the way for a free and ambiguous interpretation of traditional images and themes.
L jubov Rembrandt
The famous muse of Rembrandt Saskia was the youngest daughter of the Mayor of Leeuwarden. This white-skinned red-haired beauty grew up in a large and very wealthy family. When the girl was 12 years old, the mother of the family died. But the girl still did not know anything about refusal, and when the time came, she became a very enviable bride.
A significant meeting between the artist and the young lady took place in the house of the girl's cousin, the artist Hendrike van Eilenburg, who was also an antiques dealer. Rembrandt is literally struck by the girl: glowing delicate skin, golden hair ... Add to this the ability to conduct a casual conversation. Jokingly, she invited a famous painter to paint her portrait. And that is all that is needed: Saskia is the ideal model for Rembrandt stories in dark and muted colors.
Rembrandt begins to paint a portrait. He meets with Saskia not only in the sessions. Changing his principle, he tries to be on pleasure walks and parties. When work on the portrait was completed and frequent meetings stopped, Rembrandt realizes: this is the one he wants to marry. In 1633, Saskia van Eulenburg became the artist's bride, and on July 22, 1634, the long-awaited wedding took place.
The marriage with Saskia opens the way for the artist to high society. The burgomaster's father left his favorite a colossal inheritance: 40,000 florins. Even for a small part of this amount, it was possible to live comfortably for many, many years.
The happy and loving spouses began to equip the common house. It soon began to resemble a museum. The walls were decorated with engravings by Michelangelo and paintings by Raphael. Saskia agreed to everything, she loved her husband very much. And he, in turn, showered her with jewelry, paid for the most exquisite toilets. And, of course, he tried to capture his favorite image. Rembrandt, one might say, became the chronicler of his family life. In the first days of the couple's honeymoon, the famous "Self-portrait with Saskia on her knees" was written.
In 1635, the first son was born in the family, but he lived for a very short time, and this was a terrible blow for the young mother.
For a long time she did not want to part with the body of her son, drove everyone away from herself, not letting go of the dead child. The unhappy mother walked around the house with him, cradling and calling him by all the tender names that she and her husband called Rembrantus in the first happy days.
Rembrandt was aware that, with the exception of hours spent at the easel, he could only live near Saskia. Only with her does he feel like a man: love is the source of life, and he loves only Saskia, and no one else.
After the death of Rembrantus, Saskia lost her children twice more at birth. Only the fourth child, Titus, born in 1641, was able to survive the difficult years of infancy. The boy was named after the late Titia, Saskia's sister.
However, the constant childbirth had a detrimental effect on Saskia's health. The appearance of purely landscape images at the end of the 1630s is sometimes explained by the fact that at that time, due to the illness of his wife, Rembrandt had been with her a lot outside the city. The artist painted relatively few portraits in the 1640s.
Saskia van Eulenburg died in 1642. She was only thirty years old. In the coffin, she looked like a living ...
At this time, Rembrandt was working on the famous painting "Night Watch".
House-Museum of Rembrandt
The Art Museum on Jodenbreestraat Street in the Jewish Quarter of Amsterdam. The museum opened in 1911 in the house that Rembrandt acquired at the height of his fame in 1639 and where he lived until his bankruptcy in 1656.
For almost 20 years of his life (from 1639 to 1658) on Jodenbrestrat Street, Rembrandt managed to create many wonderful works, become famous, collect a unique collection of paintings and rarities from all over the world, acquire students, waste the fortune of his first wife, lose major customers, incur huge debts and put the house under the hammer.
Rembrandt also had to sell off much of his lavish collection of paintings and antiques, including works by great European artists, Roman busts of emperors, and even Japanese battle armor, and move into a more modest home. Having survived both wives and even his own son, Rembrandt died in poverty and loneliness.
Two and a half centuries later, in 1911, by order of Korlev Wilhelmina, the house was turned into a museum, which, unlike, for example, the Van Gogh Museum, is, first of all, not an art gallery, but the restored apartments of the great artist: a huge kitchen on on the first floor, the reception room, the master's bedroom and the guest bedroom are on the second, the largest room of the mansion - the studio - is on the third, and in the attic are the workshops of his students.
It was possible to restore the interior with the help of an inventory of property drawn up by a notary when selling all the artist's property at auction, and drawings by the artist himself, in which he depicted his dwelling.
Here you can see his personal belongings, furniture of the 17th century and other interesting exhibits such as a beautiful etching machine or overseas rarities.
The museum exhibits almost all the engravings of the great Rembrandt - 250 out of 280, magnificent self-portraits of the artist, drawings depicting his parents, wife and son Titus, wonderful views of Amsterdam and its environs.
Even the museum toilet requires special attention: there you can see Rembrandt's drawings on the relevant topic: a woman crouching in the bushes and a man standing in a pose typical of this institution.
Rembrandt - everything you need to know about the famous Dutch painter updated: November 13, 2017 by the author: website
Republic of Bashkortostan
Children's Art School number 2
Abstract on the topic:
Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn
Performed Pupil 33 gr.
Pilyugina Anna
Checked by I. A. Sevastyanova
Ufa, 2007
1. Introduction
2. Biography
3. Creativity
4. Analysis of works
5. Conclusion
Introduction.
Holland in the 17th century was one of the richest countries in Europe. Goods from all over the world flocked to its capital, Amsterdam. The wealthy Dutch merchants and bankers wanted works of art to reflect their entire lives. Painting was at that time the most popular and developed art form. Every more or less wealthy Dutchman considered a painting to be the best decoration of his home. According to the contemporary, in Dutch cities "all the houses were crammed with paintings." Despite the fact that some artists painted mostly portraits, others - genre scenes, still others - still lifes, others - landscapes, they all tried to depict the surrounding life in a realistic way: truthfully, simply, without embellishment. They succeeded, and many of them became famous for centuries. But no matter how high the skill of the Dutch painters of the 17th century was, they were surpassed by his great art by Rembrandt van Rijn - the Dutch painter, etcher and draftsman, the greatest artist of all times and peoples. He lived in an era when reason was already making attempts to triumph over faith, when the right of the strong was contested by the right of the rich, and the weak and the poor were in contempt and desecration. The world expanded within its borders, thanks to the great geographical discoveries and the study of the universe, but at the same time it narrowed to the scale of a private house or even a single soul, because faith was declared a private matter that did not in any way affect the processes in society. Sometimes the scale of one soul can exceed the scale of the universe, and then this soul is able to generate its own worlds, its own universes. Such people are born once a century, if not less often. Rembrandt was just such a person in whom the universe lived, and not alone. He is great with amazing simplicity and humanity. By means of painting, Rembrandt was able, like no one before him, to reveal the inner world of a person, his complex emotional experiences.
Rembrandt was never surrounded by honors, was never in the center of general attention, did not sit in the forefront, not a single poet glorified him during Rembrandt's life. At official celebrations, on the days of big celebrations, he was forgotten. And he disliked and avoided those who neglected him. The usual and favorite company were shopkeepers, burghers, peasants, artisans - the most common people. He loved to visit port taverns, where sailors, junk dealers, wandering actors, petty thieves and their girlfriends had fun. He gladly sat there for hours, observing the bustle and sometimes sketching interesting faces, which he then transferred to his canvases.
Biography.
On July 15, 1606, in Leiden, the wealthy miller Harmen Gerrits and his wife Neeltge Willems van Zeitbruck gave birth to their sixth child, named Rembrandt. The mill was located not far from the Rhine crossing the city, so Harmen Gerrits began to be called van Rijn, and the whole family received this addition to the surname.
Parents, giving Rembrandt a good education, wanted him to become a scientist or official. He studied at a Latin school, and then, from 1620, at Leiden University, which he left without completing it. The craving for drawing, which manifested itself since childhood, brought him to the workshop of the local painter Jacob van Svanenburg, who taught Rembrandt the basics of drawing and painting, introduced him to the history of art. After studying with him for three years, Rembrandt moved to Amsterdam in 1623 and continued his studies with the famous painter Peter Lastman (1583-1633). But the training lasted only six months. In 1624 Rembrandt returned to Leiden and there, together with his friend Jan Lievens, opened his painting workshop.
Rembrandt learns from artists of the past and his contemporaries, masters the technique of painting and engraving. He studies Italian art from casts, engravings, copies and perceives the humanistic principle of Italian art. At the end of 1631, Rembrandt, a renowned portrait painter and author of historical paintings, moved to Amsterdam, the largest trading city. One of the first paintings painted by Rembrandt in Amsterdam was the painting "The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Tulpa" (1632, The Hague, Mauritshuis), which belongs to the traditions of group portraiture. The painting aroused great interest, and Rembrandt became one of the most fashionable young portrait painters in Amsterdam.
In 1634, Rembrandt married the daughter of the former mayor of Leeuwarden, Saskia van Eulenburg, a noble and wealthy patrician woman. Her image was immortalized by Rembrandt in many portraits with extraordinary tenderness and love. From this marriage, Titus is born, a child of love and joy. In creativity, Rembrandt is just as lucky and happy as in marriage. Portraits are ordered by the wealthiest people in the city, rich corporations of artisans order group portraits, the magistrate asks to paint pictures on various topics, including religious ones, his etchings are sold in the shops of the most famous antique dealers. He has many students. Rembrandt buys a large three-storey house on Breestraat Street, where he has a workshop, living rooms, and even a shop. Furnishing the house with luxurious things, the artist creates a rich collection, which included works by Raphael, Giorgione, Durer, Mantegna, van Eyck, engravings from the works of Michelangelo, Titian. Rembrandt collected Persian miniatures, vases, shells, genuine antique busts, Chinese and Japanese porcelain, Venetian glass, expensive oriental fabrics, costumes of various peoples, tapestries, musical instruments.
By the early 40s, Rembrandt was a popular and highly paid painter. During the 30s, he painted about 60 commissioned portraits. He has about 15 students. One of the most famous paintings by Rembrandt of this period is Danae (1636-1646, St. Petersburg, State Hermitage). He began to work on the painting during the period of family happiness, at the zenith of fame. But in subsequent years, a lot has changed: three children of Rembrandt die, a few months later his beloved wife Saskia died (1642), who leaves the young Titus in his arms. Soon he loses his mother and sisters. After the death of Saskia, Rembrandt's life seemed to have cracked, which would not last until the end of his days. In the 1650s, he had fewer and fewer orders. Rich people no longer order their portraits from him, the magistrate does not provide funds for paintings for public buildings. In the churches of this time, paintings were also not required, since in Holland Protestantism, which had a negative attitude towards religious art, triumphed. Rembrandt's etchings, which sold so well a few years ago, now do not find a buyer. For a while, Rembrandt, accustomed to living on a grand scale, still lives, but this is no longer within his means. Due to outstanding debts, creditors are filing formal lawsuits, seeking a court decision on imprisonment. In 1656, by a court decision, the Amsterdam City Hall declared Rembrandt an insolvent debtor, an inventory of the property was carried out, and in 1656–1658 its sale took place. The real value of the artist's property was several times higher than the amount of his debts: the collection was estimated at 17 thousand guilders. However, it was sold for only 5 thousand, the house was estimated at half its original cost. But not all creditors were satisfied. And the court ruled that all paintings that will be created by the artist should be sold to pay off debts, the court also deprived Rembrandt of the right to have property, except for wearable things and painting supplies, which meant a miserable existence. Saskia's relatives are also included in the campaign of persecution of the artist, with whom Rembrandt had a conflict during the life of Saskia, because they argued that the artist squandered his wife's fortune. Although at that time, Rembrandt made a fortune by his labor that exceeded his wife's giving, he collected an excellent collection of art treasures. The famous painter, who knew fame and fortune early, turned out to be a poor man by the age of fifty, he lives alone, forgotten by his admirers and friends. True, he still writes a lot, but all his canvases are immediately taken away by creditors ...
Consolation in the plight of Rembrandt, in addition to painting, is his second wife Hendrickje Stoffels. Rather, she was his housekeeper, and he lived with her, as they say, in a civil marriage. Puritan society severely condemned him for this "cohabitation." The artist could not officially marry her, since according to the will of Saskia, Rembrandt, upon concluding a new marriage, would be deprived of the right to be the guardian of the inheritance of his son Titus. However, Hendrickje was not only an economic, but also a kind woman, for Titus she became a real mother. In 1654 she gave birth to a daughter, Cornelia, to Rembrandt. The image of Hendrickje Stoffels is also captured in Rembrandt's canvases. She is not as young and beautiful as Saskia, but the artist looks at her with the eyes of love, depicts her with great warmth. Again, the church condemns his cohabitation with Hendrickje, their daughter Cornelia is declared illegitimate. The Rembrandt family moves to the poorest quarter of Amsterdam. Titus, after the ruin of his father, in order to make his property completely inaccessible to Rembrandt's creditors, draws up a will in which he leaves all his fortune to his sister Cornelia, and appoints Rembrandt as a guardian with the right to use the money. Despite his plight, Rembrandt continues to write.
In 1660, Titus and Hendrickje opened an antique shop, where Rembrandt was recruited by an expert. And although, by a court decision, the paintings newly painted by Rembrandt were to be transferred to the disposal of creditors, the contract for his employment made it possible for the artist to transfer his works to an antique store. This allowed the family to increase their income and buy a house.
Trouble does not stop pouring in on the artist: in 1663 he lost his beloved Hendrickje Stoffels, who, according to her will, leaves an antique shop to Titus, and a small inheritance to Rembrandt. In 1668, his son Titus dies. With him remained only his daughter Cornelia, who at that time was 14 years old. Rembrandt becomes the guardian of his daughter Cornelia. And yet, in spite of everything, Rembrandt continues to paint, cut engravings, hatching more and more new plans.
In February 1668 Titus married Magdalena van Loo, but died soon after. This dealt a crushing blow to Rembrandt, and on October 8, 1669, he dies in the arms of his daughter Corneli.
Creation.
Rembrandt's work is undoubtedly the pinnacle of the Dutch school. This master was alone among his fellow artists. They considered him "the first heretic in painting", although later they themselves began to be called "Little Dutchmen" - to emphasize how much Rembrandt had outgrown them.
The Baroque style, which originated in the 17th century, also had a great influence on his work, but the sophistication, splendor, emphasized theatricality of this style was far from Rembrandt's searches. He was an admirer of the work of Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1573-1510), the founder of the realistic trend in European painting of the 17th century.
Rembrandt wrote what he observed in life, and everything that he portrayed became extraordinarily poetic. This miracle was performed by the brush of a great master. Twilight reigns in Rembrandt's paintings, and soft golden light sets off the figures from him. The paints themselves, as if warmed by inner warmth, flicker like
precious stones. A special place in the work of Rembrandt is occupied by a religious theme, it is here that the originality of the master manifests itself. The main source of inspiration for Rembrandt was the Bible. Even when paintings on religious themes were not in demand, the artist painted them for himself, because he felt a real need for it. These paintings embody his soul, his prayer, his deep reading of the Gospel. The artist read the Bible in his native language, which is not distinguished by grace. He puts it in a form that is understandable and close to contemporaries, people of simple life and simple faith. There is such a stable in which the Savior was born in every Dutch village. The Jerusalem temple, where Elder Simeon takes the Infant God into his arms, resembles the ancient cathedrals of Amsterdam. And all the characters in his biblical paintings, and even the angels, look like burghers and peasants that can be found everywhere in this country.
In the artist's manner, over the years, chiaroscuro gains more and more importance, with the help of which he places spiritual and emotional accents, everywhere light is the "main character" of the picture and the key to the interpretation of the plot. He is interested in the hidden essence of phenomena, the complex inner world of people. In 1648 he painted the painting "Christ in Emmaus", where chiaroscuro creates a tense emotional atmosphere. "The expulsion of the merchants from the temple" was written by Rembrandt at the age of twenty. Some features of this work speak of the inexperience of the novice master, although much already foreshadows his future masterpieces. It is easy to see professional sins in the picture: errors in perspective and proportions. However, the very choice of the plot is evidence of independent In spite of the attachments of the majority of Dutch painters to the genre of everyday life, he turns a historical painting to a biblical subject and writes it with a dramatic intensity of passions unusual for "small Dutch". The extreme emotional states recreated on the canvas - fear, horror, anger - are evidence of the artist's early interest in the inner world of man. This somewhat grotesque sharpening of mental manifestations was the starting point in the creative path of Rembrandt, which later led him to the discovery of the multifaceted life-human soul.
For all that, the pictorial language of Rembrandt is surprisingly subtle and sophisticated, the artist achieves incredible nuances of color, the play of light and shadow, and masterfully builds a composition. The types of his paintings are deliberately common people, but their feelings and experiences are deep and sublime. This contrast makes the master's paintings unique. Rembrandt achieves particular refinement in graphics. Here he achieves an incredible subtlety of line and stroke, but this is only a means for deep penetration into the plot. In essence, Rembrandt is the creator of etching, but even after him, rarely did anyone succeed in conveying the spiritual state of the heroes so psychologically accurately. The biblical theme is also the main one here. The graphic versions of the parable of the prodigal son amaze with the intensity of drama and affect the viewer no less than the famous painting on this topic.
Rembrandt's paintings and prints are much more widely known to the public than his drawings, which remained for a long time the subject of interest of a small circle of collectors and connoisseurs. Meanwhile, the figure of Rembrandt the draftsman is in no way inferior to Rembrandt the painter Iliofortist. The master's drawings, preserved in huge numbers - about 1700 sheets, constitute an autonomous area of \u200b\u200bhis work. And one of the most remarkable features of Rembrandt's drawings is their ability to make the viewer a witness and an accomplice of the birth of an artistic thought of a genius master. These sheets include a small sketch "Woman with a child". Filled with a reed pen, it retains all the freedom and immediacy of an instant sketch from life or from memory, when the artist's hands barely have time to outline the main lines.
The latest works of the master amaze with the refinement of the style, the depth of penetration into the inner world of images, the light and shade effects are even more intensified, turning the canvases into paintings shimmering like precious stones. In graphics, Rembrandt also reaches incredible heights of skill.
Even now, he often writes self-portraits, peering into them, like in a mirror, perhaps trying to unravel his own fate or comprehend the plan of God, so fancifully leading him through life. Rembrandt's self-portraits are not only the pinnacle of his work, they have no analogues in the world portrait gallery. In the self-portraits of recent years, a person appears before us who heroically endures difficult trials and the bitterness of loss. As a portrait painter, he was the creator of a peculiar genre of portrait-biography, where the long life of a person and his inner world were revealed in all their complexity and contradictions. The work of Rembrandt in the 1650s was marked primarily by achievements in the field of portraiture. Outwardly, the portraits of this period are usually distinguished by their large size, monumental forms, and calm poses. Models usually sit in reclining chairs with their hands on their knees and facing directly towards the viewer. The face and hands are highlighted with light. These are always elderly people, wise by long life experience, old people and old women with the imprint of gloomy thoughts on their faces and hard work on their hands. Such models gave the artist brilliant opportunities to show not only the external signs of old age, but also the spiritual appearance of a person. In the unusually exciting and heartfelt portraits of Rembrandt, one feels as if a person's life. Depicting his loved ones, friends, beggars, old people, each time with amazing vigilance he conveyed the changeable mental movements, the lively tremor of facial expressions, the change of mood.
Analysis of works.
1. “ Return of the prodigal son ”
By the mid-1660s, Rembrandt was completing his most heartfelt work, The Return of the Prodigal Son. It can be seen as the testament of Rembrandt the human and Rembrandt the artist. It is here that the idea that Rembrandt served all his life finds its highest, most perfect embodiment. And it is in this work that we meet with all the richness and variety of pictorial and technical techniques that the artist has developed over the long decades of creativity. Torn off, exhausted and sick, squandered his fortune and abandoned by friends, the son appears on the threshold of his father's house and here, in the arms of his father, finds forgiveness and consolation. The immense light joy of these two old man, who has lost all hopes of meeting his son, and the son, seized by shame and remorse, hiding his face on his father's chest, is the main emotional content of the work. Silently, shocked, the involuntary witnesses of this scene froze. The artist limits himself to the utmost in color. The picture is dominated by golden ocher, cinnabar-red and black-brown tones with an endless richness of the finest transitions within this meager range. In the application of paints to the canvas, a brush, a spatula, and a brush handle are involved; but even this does not seem sufficient to Rembrandt. He applies paints to the canvas directly with his finger (for example, the heel of the prodigal son's left foot is written this way). Thanks to a variety of techniques, an increased vibration of the paint surface is achieved. The paints now burn, then sparkle, then dully smolder, then seem to glow from the inside, and not a single detail, not a single, even the most insignificant, corner of the canvas leaves the viewer indifferent. Only a person who was wise by his vast life experience and a great artist who had come a long way could create this ingenious and simple work. In The Return of the Prodigal Son, nothing happens and nothing is said. Everything was said, thought over, suffered and felt a long time ago, in the years of long waiting, but there is the joy of meeting, quiet and bright ... "The Return of the Prodigal Son" was the last great work of the master. 2. “ Danae ”
When the king of the ancient Greek city of Argos learned about the prophecy, according to which he was destined to die at the hands of his daughter Danae, he imprisoned her in a dungeon and assigned a servant to her. The god Zeus, however, penetrated to Danae in the form of a golden rain, after which she gave birth to a son, Perseus.
Rembrandt began painting Danae in 1636, 2 years after his marriage to Saskia van Eilenbürch. The artist loves his young wife dearly, often depicting her in his paintings. Danae, written by Rembrandt not for sale, but for his house, was no exception. The painting remained with the artist until the sale of his property in 1656. For a long time it remained a mystery why the similarities with Saskia are not as obvious as in other paintings by the artist of the 1630s, and the style he used in places is more similar to the works of a later period of his work. Only relatively recently, in the middle of the 20th century, with the help of fluoroscopy, it was possible to find an answer to this riddle. On X-rays, the resemblance to Rembrandt's wife is more pronounced. It turns out that the painting was changed after the death of the artist's wife (1642), while he was in an intimate relationship with Gertier Dierckx. Danae's facial features in the painting were changed in such a way that they combined both of the artist's beloved women. In addition, fluoroscopy showed that in the original image there was a golden shower pouring on Danae, and her gaze was directed upwards, not to the side. The angel at the head of the bed had a laughing face, and the woman's right hand was turned, palm up.
In the painting, a young nude woman in bed is illuminated by a stream of warm sunlight falling through the canopy that was pushed by the maid. The woman raised her head above the pillow, stretching out her right hand towards the light, trying to feel it with her palm. Her trusting gaze is turned towards the light, her lips parted slightly in a half-smile. A tangled hairstyle, a crumpled pillow - everything suggests that a minute ago, unraveling in a drowsy bliss, a woman was watching sweet dreams in her luxurious bed. Danae received an in-depth psychological characterization and a contradictory range of her feelings and experiences. "Danae", thanks to which the innermost inner world of a woman, the whole complex and contradictory range of her feelings and experiences, was revealed. "Danae", thus, is a clear concrete example of the formation of the famous Rembrandt psychologism. The painting "Danae" is recognized as one of the best works of the artist. 3. “ Anatomy lesson by Dr. Tulpa ”
The identities of the two people in this portrait are known. One of them is Dr. Nicholas Tulp, who shows the audience the structure of the musculature of the human arm. The other is a corpse: Aris Kindt, nicknamed the Infant, his real name was Adrian Adrianzon. The deceased seriously wounded a prison guard in Utrecht and beat and robbed a man in Amsterdam. For this, on January 31, 1632, he was hanged and handed over for a public autopsy to the Amsterdam guild of surgeons.
Such open anatomical lessons were common not only in the Netherlands but throughout Europe. They were held only once a year, usually in the winter months, so that the body was better preserved, were solemn in nature and usually lasted for several days. The spectators were colleagues in the shop, students, respected citizens and ordinary citizens.
Guild group portraitAutopsies took place in anatomical theaters, which were round in shape with rows rising upward. The table with the body, standing in the center of the theater, was clearly visible from any place. About Amsterdam Teatrum Anatomicum little is known, Rembrandt only marked it on his canvas. A room filled with spectators can be imagined as an observer.
Tulpa has a higher rank in comparison with the rest of the characters, he is the only one depicted in the picture with a hat. Most likely, the rest of the fellows in the workshop do not have an academic education. Maybe they co-financed this painting - the group portrait served to glorify those depicted on it and decorate the guild's residence.
Rembrandt depicted characters on his canvas differently from his predecessors. As a rule, they were depicted sitting in rows and looking not at the body, but directly at the viewer. The artist depicted the surgeons in profile or half-turn and grouped them in the form of a pyramid, and the main character is not located at its top.
In addition, he deliberately emphasizes the genuine interest of the audience. Two people leaned forward, their posture and gazes indicate that they certainly want to see everything as closely and accurately as possible, while it is hard to believe that both surgeons are really carried away by the ceremonial action taking place and are trying to satisfy their scientific interest. It is unlikely that the audience sat so close to the scene, Rembrandt concentrated what was happening in a narrow space, surrounding the dead man with intense attention and life.
Autopsy
Surprisingly, the autopsy started with the hand. Usually, surgeons first opened the abdomen and removed the internal organs. 24 years later, Rembrandt painted the canvas "Lecture on the Anatomy of Dr. Deiman", which depicts a body with an open abdominal cavity - according to the canons then existing.
This could be due to two reasons. The first is a tribute to Andreas Vesalius, the founder of modern anatomy, who became famous for his study of the anatomy of the hand. The second - by depicting a hand, the artist could more easily bring a religious message to the picture. Just like the tendons control the hand, God controls the people. Science was supposed to prove to people the power of God.
Dr. Nicholas Tulp
Dr. Nicholas Tulpa was actually called Klaus Pieterson, he was born in 1593 and died in 1674. The surname Tulp originates from the parental home, where there was once an auction for the sale of flowers.
Tulp belonged to the top of the Amsterdam society, several times he was the burgomaster of Amsterdam. At the time of writing the canvas, he was a member of the city council and was the presector (president) of the guild of surgeons. Tulp was a medical practitioner in Amsterdam, anatomy was one of the areas in which he specialized. Rembrandt emphasized his special position by depicting him aside from the surgeons sitting close to each other. In addition, the artist depicted Tulpa as the only one wearing a hat - in a room to have the privilege of wearing a headdress has always been a sign of belonging to high society.
Aris Kindt's body
Artists before Rembrandt usually depicted the face of the deceased with a headscarf or a person standing in front of him. The observers had to forget that there was a man in front of them who was being dismembered before their eyes. Rembrandt came up with an intermediate solution - he depicted his face half covered with shadow. A typical Rembrandt play on the contrast of light and shadow, as if visible in the twilight ombra mortis - the shadow of death.
Although Doctor Tulpa is the central character, Aris Kindt's body takes up a large area on the canvas. The main light also falls on him, his nakedness and stiffness distinguish him from the people depicted in the picture. It seems that Rembrandt only then depicted surgeons so closely and gave such dynamics to the canvas in order to emphasize the immobility of the body, to make its deadness palpable.
Conclusion.
The master's creative heritage is huge, Rembrandt was incredibly efficient: he created more than 250 paintings, 300 engravings and 1000 drawings. The artist died in poverty, but after his death his work became extremely valuable.
Rembrandt's work had a huge impact on the development of the world of fine arts. His works are today in many museums around the world and in private collections. And in Holland, Rembrandt's birthday - July 15 - is celebrated as a national holiday.
The artist raised the fine arts to a new level, enriching it with an unprecedented
Vitality and psychological depth. Rembrandt created a new pictorial language in which the main role was played by subtly developed techniques of chiaroscuro and rich,
emotionally intense coloring.
Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (baroque)
Resmbrandt was born in Leiden, the son of a rather wealthy mill owner. First he studied at the Latin School, and then briefly at the University of Leiden, but left him to study painting, first with a little-known local master, and then with the Amsterdam artist Peter Lastman.
After a short study, Rembrandt leaves for his hometown to paint independently in his own workshop. This is the time of the artist's formation, when he was fond of the work of Caravaggio. During this period, he painted many portraits of his family members - mother, father, sister and self-portraits. Already at this time, he pays special attention to the illumination and transmission of the spiritual experiences of his models. The young artist loves to dress them up in various clothes, drape them in beautiful fabrics, perfectly conveying their texture and color.
In 1632, Rembrandt left for Amsterdam, the center of Dutch artistic culture, which naturally attracted the young artist. Here he quickly reaches fame, he has many orders. At the same time, he continues to improve his skills with enthusiasm. The 30s - the time of the highest glory, the path to which was opened for the painter by his large commissioned painting "Anatomy Lesson". All poses and actions in the picture are natural, but devoid of excessive naturalism.
In 1634, Rembrandt married a girl from a wealthy family - Saskia van Eilenborch - and from that time on, he fell into patrician circles. The happiest time of the artist's life begins: mutual passionate love, material well-being, a lot of orders. The painter often writes to his young wife: "Flora", "Self-portrait with Saskia on her knees." But the happiness did not last long. In 1642, Saskia died, leaving her young son Titus.
Moral depression and the passion for collecting that seized Rembrandt gradually led him to ruin. This was facilitated by the change in the tastes of the public, carried away by carefully written light painting. Rembrandt, who never yielded to the tastes of his customers, was interested in the contrasts of light and shadow, leaving the light in one point, the rest of the picture was in the shade and in partial shade. Orders were getting smaller. New girlfriend of his life Hendrickje Stoffels and his son Titus founded a company for the sale of paintings and antiques to help the artist. But their efforts were in vain. Things were getting worse. In the early 1660s, Hendrickje died, and after a few years, Titus died.
However, in spite of everything, the artist continues to work. During these especially difficult years, he creates a number of remarkable works: "Syndics", "Return of the Prodigal Son", striking with inner drama.
The greatest artist died in extreme poverty on October 4, 1669. Contemporaries reacted coldly to this loss. It took almost two hundred years for the power of Rembrandt's realism, the deep psychology of his canvases, and his amazing pictorial skill to raise his name from oblivion and put him in the ranks of the world's greatest names.
Return of the prodigal son (1668-69)
One of the last paintings by Rembrandt. This is a deep psychological drama. The canvas with tremendous power sounds a call to deep humanity, the affirmation of the spiritual community of people, the beauty of parental love.
It depicts a biblical story about a dissolute son who, after long wanderings, returned to his father's house. The whole room is plunged into darkness, only father and son are brightly lit. The son with the shaved head of a convict, in rags, with a bare heel, from which a shoe with holes had fallen, fell to his knees and pressed himself against his father, hiding his face on his chest. The old father, blinded with grief in anticipation of his son, feels him, recognizes and forgives him, blessing him.
The artist naturally and truthfully conveys all the power of his father's love. Nearby there are numb figures of spectators, expressing surprise and indifference - these are members of the society that first corrupted and then condemned the prodigal son. But paternal love triumphs over their indifference and hostility.
The canvas became immortal thanks to the universal human feelings expressed in it - the bottomless vigilant love, the bitterness of disappointment, loss, humiliation, shame and remorse.
Return of the Prodigal Son (1668-1669) -fragment
Danae (1636)
This is the best work of Rembrandt in the 1930s.
The picture is dedicated to the eternal theme of love. The plot is based on the myth about the daughter of Tsar Akrisiy Danae. The oracle predicted to Acrisius that he would die at the hands of his grandson. Then the king imprisoned his daughter in a tower forever. But the almighty Zeus turned into a golden rain and in this form penetrated to Danae and became her lover. They had a son, Perseus, and then again, on the orders of Aryxius, Danaus, together with his son in a box, were thrown into the sea. But Danae and her son did not die.
The artist depicts the moment when Danae is happily awaiting Zeus. The old servant woman pulls back the curtain of her bed, and a golden glow pours into the room. Danae, in anticipation of happiness, rises to meet the golden rain. The veil fell asleep and revealed a no longer young, heavy body, far from the laws of classical beauty. Nevertheless, it captivates with life truthfulness, soft roundness of forms. And although the artist refers to a theme from ancient mythology, the picture is clearly written in the spirit of realism.
Danae - fragment
Artemis (1634)
Artemis (Artemis) - daughter of Zeus and Leto, sister of Apollo. Originally revered as a goddess of the animal and plant world. She is the "mistress of beasts", Tavropol (protector of bulls), Limnatis (marsh), a bear (in this form she was worshiped in Bavron). Later - the goddess of the hunt, mountains and forests, the patroness of women in labor. Artemis begged for eternal virginity from Zeus. Sixty Oceanids and twenty nymphs were her constant companions on the hunt, participants in her games and dances. Its main function is to guard the established customs, sacrifices to the gods, for the violation of which she severely punishes: she sends a terrible boar to the Calydonian kingdom, and deadly snakes to the marriage bed of King Admet. She also protects the animal world, calling to account Hercules, who killed the Kerinean doe with golden horns, and demands a bloody sacrifice in exchange for the sacred doe killed by Agamemnon - his daughter Iphigenia (on the sacrificial altar, Artemis secretly from people replaced the princess with a deer, and transferred Iphigenia to Taurida her priestess). Artemis is the protector of chastity. She patronizes Hippolyta, who despises love, turns Actaeon, who accidentally saw the goddess naked, into a deer, who was torn apart by his own dogs, and the nymph Calypso, who broke her vow, into a bear. She has decisiveness, does not tolerate rivalry, uses her well-aimed arrows as a weapon of punishment. Artemis, together with Apollo, exterminated the children of Niobe, who took pride in the mother of the gods Leto with her seven sons and seven daughters; her arrow hit Orion, who dared to compete with the goddess. As the goddess of vegetation, Artemis is associated with fertility. This cult especially spread in Ephesus (Asia Minor), where the temple of Artemis of Ephesus (one of the "seven wonders of the world") was built in her honor, burned by Herostratus. Artemis was revered here as a nursing goddess, "hard work"; she is the patroness of the Amazons. Artemis was also revered as a goddess of war. In Sparta, before the battle, a goat was sacrificed to the goddess, and in Athens every year, on the anniversary of the Battle of Marathon (September-October), five hundred goats were laid on the altars. Artemis often approached the goddess of the month (Hecate) or the goddess of the full moon (Selene). There is a myth about Artemis-Selene, in love with the handsome Endymion, who wished eternal youth and immortality and received them in a deep sleep. Every night the goddess approached the grotto of the Carian mountain Latm, where the young man slept and admired his beauty. The attribute of the goddess is a quiver behind her back, in her hands a bow or a torch; she is accompanied by a deer or a pack of hunting dogs. In Rome, Artemis is identified with the local deity Diana.
Abraham and three angels
God appeared to Abraham and his wife Sarah in the form of three travelers, three beautiful young men (God the father, God the son and God the Holy Spirit). The elderly couple showed them generous hospitality. Having accepted the treat, God announced to the spouses a miracle: despite their deep old age, they will have a son, and from him will come a great and strong people, and all the peoples of the world will be blessed in him.
Self-portrait with Saskia (1636)
The entire canvas is permeated with frank glee! The self-portrait depicts the spouses having a merry feast. Rembrandt, huge in comparison with his slender wife, holds her on his knees and lifts a crystal goblet of foaming wine. They seem to be taken by surprise, in an intimate atmosphere beating over the edge of life.
Rembrandt, in a rich military suit with a gilded sling and a rapier on his side, looks like some dandy raiter having fun with a girl. He is not embarrassed that such a pastime can be considered a sign of bad taste. He only knows that his wife is loved, and therefore beautiful in her luxurious bodice, silk skirt, magnificent headdress and precious necklace, and that everyone should admire her. He is not afraid to appear either vulgar or vain. He lives in a realm of dreams and joy, far from people, and it does not occur to him that he can be censured. And all these feelings are conveyed by the innocent expression of the shining face of the artist himself, who seems to have achieved all earthly blessings.
The picture expresses the joy of life, the consciousness of youth, health and well-being.
Jewish Bride (1665)
Rembrandt wrote a lot on the themes of biblical stories, and they were all in his own way, updated in content. Often he painted pictures contrary to logic - lighting, paints, everything only according to his idea. The artist shows the same independence in the manner of dressing his characters. He dressed them up in strange clothes - and Saskia, and Juno, and others ... The same with the couple in the painting "The Jewish Bride". The name is strange, because the canvas depicts a married couple, and the wife is pregnant. Against the background of indistinct greenery, part of the large wall and cityscape is guessed. A couple in red and gold clothes stand in front of a pilaster. Two faces and four hands a man leans towards a woman whose gaze is turned to herself, to her thoughts. Her right hand, holding the flowers, is resting on her stomach. In the face - the gullible seriousness of the wife, busy only with the presence of another life in herself. The man hugs her shoulders with his left hand. The right hand rests on the dress at chest level, where the woman's left hand touches it. Fingers touch each other. Light touch. The man looks at the woman's hand touching his own.
Flora
Flora is the Italian goddess of flowers and youth. The Flora cult is one of the oldest agricultural cults in Italy, especially the Sabine tribe. The Romans identified Flora with the Greek Chloride and celebrated in her honor in the spring the so-called floralia, during which they played merry games, sometimes taking on an unbridled character. People decorated themselves and animals with flowers, women put on bright dresses. In ancient art, Flora was portrayed as a young woman holding flowers or scattering flowers.
Frederic Rigel on horseback (1663)
Before us is a typical ceremonial portrait. Rigel was a successful merchant, producing paper and printing books. The wealthy typographer accompanied the Prince of Orange to Amsterdam in 1660, and the portrait may have been commissioned to commemorate this event. A man riding a horse is looking at us from a dark canvas. He is in expensive, but not pretentiously luxurious clothes. His face radiates intelligence, authority and self-esteem.
Christ and the sinner
The canvas depicts the meeting of Christ and the sinner on a vast space filled with people, the vastness of which is enhanced by the arched sections of the walls that raise the ceiling upward. Everything is immersed in darkness, only the figure of Christ and a young woman are illuminated. In this canvas, Rembrandt first approached an unconventional solution to the biblical scene, which other artists will imitate with amazing consistency.
Jacob wrestles with an angel (1659)
One of the most mysterious episodes in the Old Testament. When Jacob is left alone, Someone appears (it is considered to be an angel) and fights with him all night. The angel fails to overcome Jacob, then he touches the vein in his thigh and damages it. Nevertheless, Jacob passes the test and receives a new name - Israel, meaning "the one who fights with God and will prevail over men." That is why, to some extent, the postures of Jacob and the angel, embracing rather than fighting, are natural and justified.
The Night Watch (1642)
This is a group portrait by Rembrandt "Speech by the rifle company of Captain Frans Banning Kok and Lieutenant Willem van Reitenbürg". The painting was commissioned by the Shooting Society - a detachment of the civilian militia of the Netherlands. In the 18th century, the canvas was cut from all sides to fit the painting in the new hall of the museum. The left side of the picture suffered the most, where two arrows disappeared. (Even after the circumcision, the painting is one of the largest in the museum.) The painting was attempted to be damaged or destroyed three times. The artist depicted musketeers emerging from a dark courtyard through an archway onto a sunlit square. The play of light and shadow, characteristic of the style of the great Rembrandt, is masterfully conveyed. He depicted the moment when Captain Kok gave the order to march to Lieutenant Reitenbürg, and everything began to move. The ensign unfolds the banner, the drummer kicks out a roll, a dog barks at him, a boy runs away. Even the details of the shooters' clothing move in the picture. In addition to 18 customers of the painting, the artist filled the canvas with sixteen more characters. The meaning of these characters, as well as the many symbols in the picture, are known only to Rembrandt himself.
Blinding Samson
Samson is a hero of Old Testament traditions, endowed with incredible physical strength. All his life he took revenge on the Philistines for the betrayal of his bride on the wedding day. She was a Philistine, but now his mistress is the Philistine Delilah. The Philistine rulers bribed her to find out the source of Samson's strength and find out where his weak point was. Delilah tried three times to find out from Samson, and three times he deceived her, understanding what she was trying to achieve. But still, in the end, with the help of female tricks, Delilah convinced him of her love and devotion, and he revealed to her that the strength would leave him if you cut his hair. She told her compatriots about this and at night, when Samson was asleep, they cut his hair. Waking up to Delilah's cry, "The Philistines are against you, Samson!", He felt that his strength was leaving him. Then the enemies blinded Samson, put him in chains and made him rotate the millstones in the dungeon of Gaza. But Samson's hair gradually grew, and his strength returned ... To enjoy Samson's humiliation, the Philistines bring him to the feast in the temple of Dagon and make the audience amused. Samson asks the youth guide to bring him to the pillars of the temple in order to lean on them. Having offered a prayer to God, Samson, who again felt his strength, moves the two middle pillars of the temple from their place, and with an exclamation "May my soul die together with the Philistines!", Brings down the entire building of the temple on the audience. So, at the moment of his death, Samson killed more enemies than in his entire life ...
Belshazzar's Feast (1635)
In biblical mythology, Belshazzar was the last Babylonian king, and the fall of Babylon is associated with his name. Despite the siege of the capital by Cyrus, the king and all the inhabitants, having a rich supply of food, could carelessly indulge in the pleasures of life. On the occasion of one minor feast, Belshazzar made a magnificent feast, to which up to a thousand nobles and courtiers were invited. Table bowls were precious vessels selected by the Babylonian conquerors from various conquered peoples, among other things, and expensive vessels from the Jerusalem temple. At the same time, according to the custom of the ancient pagans, the Babylonian gods were glorified, who turned out to be victorious before and will always be victorious, despite all the efforts of Cyrus and his secret allies, the Jews, with their Jehovah. But now, in the midst of the feast, a human hand appeared on the wall and slowly began to write some words. Seeing her, "the king changed in his face, his thoughts got confused, the bonds of his loins weakened, and his knees began to beat one another in terror." The summoned sages were unable to read and explain the inscription. Then, on the advice of the queen, they invited the aged prophet Daniel, who always showed extraordinary wisdom. And he really read the inscription, which in the Aramaic language briefly read: "Mene, tekel, uparsin" This meant: "Mene - God has numbered your kingdom and put an end to it; tekel - you are weighed and found very easy; uparsin - your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians. " On that very night, the biblical story continues, Belshazzar, the king of the Chaldees, was killed.
Portrait of Hendrickje Stoffels (c. 1659)
After the death of Saskia, another woman entered the life of Rembrandt, a modest servant Hendrickje Stofffels, who brightened the loneliness of the master. He often wrote her, but in the titles of works where she served as a model, he never mentioned her name.
Portrait of Saskia dressed as a shepherdess (1638)
In this work, the artist expresses his attitude towards his wife. She is depicted on a dark canvas surrounded by a golden glow. A soft, charming face froze in an expression of expectation: at the time of painting, Saskia was pregnant with their first child, who died shortly after birth. Her golden hair is draped over her bare shoulders. A branch of some plant is stuck into the hoop that supports the hair, like a feather. The loose sleeves of the home dress form intricate folds. With one hand, she rests on a grapevine staff, with the other holding a heap of crumbling flowers. In this work, the artist transferred to the canvas all the feeling of happiness that overwhelmed him then.
Sindiki (elders of the cloth workshop) - (1661-1662)
The final in the history of the group portrait was the image by Rembrandt of the elders of the cloth-makers' workshop - the so-called "Syndics", where with scant means, avoiding monotony, the artist created living and at the same time different human types, but most importantly, he managed to convey a sense of spiritual union, mutual understanding and interconnection of people. united by one business and tasks.
David's Farewell to Jonathan (1642)
The Jewish king Seoul sought to destroy young David, fearing that he would take his throne. Warned by his friend, Prince Jonathan, the conqueror of Goliath David says goodbye to Jonathan at the Azaille stone (the Hebrew meaning is parting, separation.) Jonathan is stern and restrained, his face is mournful. David in despair falls to the chest of his friend, he is inconsolable.
The Sacrifice of Abraham (1635)
The characters of the picture appear before us in difficult angles. From the body of Isaac, stretched out in the foreground and expressing the complete helplessness of the victim, the viewer's gaze turns to the depth - to the figure of the elder Abraham and the messenger of God, the angel, bursting out of the clouds. The artist soulfully conveyed the state of mind of Abraham, who did not have time to feel either the joy of getting rid of the terrible sacrifice or gratitude when the angel suddenly appeared, but who was experiencing only fatigue and bewilderment.
Samson makes a riddle at the wedding table (1637)
Samson loved to wander around the country and one day he ended up in the city of Thimnath. There he fell madly in love with a stately Philistine woman and wished to marry her. He ran home and asked his parents to marry his beloved. The old men clutched their heads in horror: their son had caused them a lot of grief, and now, in addition to everything, he decided to marry a foreign woman, the daughter of a Philistine. Samson, however, stood his ground. Parents had nothing to do - sighing heavily, they obeyed the whim of their eccentric son. Samson became a groom and since then often visited the bride's parents. Once, when Samson was briskly walking along the path between the vineyards, a young roaring lion barred his way. The strongman tore the lion to shreds and, as if nothing had happened, went to Timnaf, not telling anyone about his adventure. Returning home, he was surprised to see that a swarm of bees was nesting in the mouth of the killed lion and a lot of honey had already accumulated. Samson brought the honeycomb to his parents without saying a word where he got it. In Timnaf, the matchmaking went well, there was a big feast, everyone congratulated the bride and groom, and appointed a wedding day. According to Philistine custom, the wedding celebration lasts seven days. At the feast, the bride's parents, fearing the extraordinary power of Samson, assigned him thirty strong young Philistines as marriage buddies. Samson, looking at the "guards" with a grin, invited them to solve the riddle. It was necessary to solve it by the end of the wedding, on the seventh day. The riddle sounded like this: "Out of the eater came out poison, and out of the strong came out sweet." Of course, no one could solve this riddle, since no one knew that we were talking about bees eating nectar (bees are "eating"), about honey ("food") and about a strong lion. At the same time, Samson set conditions: if it is solved, they will receive 30 shirts the same amount of top dress, and if not, they will pay him the same. The dumbfounded Philistines pondered this strange riddle for three days. Desperate, they went to his young wife and threatened that if she did not get the answer to the riddle from her husband, they would burn both themselves and her father's house. The Philistines really did not want to pay Samson a rich sum of money. By cunning and affectionate, the wife found out from her husband the answer to the riddle, and the next day the Philistines gave the correct answer. The enraged Samson had nothing to do but pay off the agreed debt, and his parents were very poor. Then he killed 30 Philistines and gave their clothes as a debt. Samson himself, realizing that his wife had betrayed him, slammed the door and left again to his parents.
Blind Tobit and Anna (1626)
Tobit is an Israelite, distinguished by righteousness in his native country and did not leave the pious Assyrian government and generally endured a number of trials, including blindness, which ended for him and his offspring with the full blessing of God. His son, Tobias, healed with the help of an angel.
Holy Family (1635)
The plot is from the Gospel, but the artist depicts the everyday life of ordinary people. Only angels descending into the twilight of a poor dwelling remind us that this is not an ordinary family. The gesture of the mother's hand, throwing back the canopy to look at the sleeping child, concentration in the figure of Joseph - everything is deeply thought out. The simplicity of life and the appearance of people does not make the picture mundane. Rembrandt knows how to see in everyday life not the shallow and ordinary, but the deep and enduring. Peaceful silence of working life, the sanctity of motherhood emanates from this canvas.
Bathsheba (1654)
According to the Bible, Bathsheba was a woman of rare beauty. King David, walking on the roof of his palace, saw Bathsheba bathing below. Her husband, Uriah, is at that time away from home, serving in the army of David. Bathsheba did not try to seduce the king. But David was seduced by the beauty of Bathsheba and ordered that she be taken to the palace. As a result of their relationship, she became pregnant and gave birth to a son, Solomon. Later, David wrote to the commander of the army where Uriah fought, a letter in which he ordered to place Uriah where there will be "the most powerful battle, and retreat from him so that he was defeated and died." Indeed, this happened, and David subsequently married Bathsheba. Their first child lived only a few days. David later repented of what he had done. For all her high position as the most beloved of the wives of David, Bathsheba took a place in the shadows and behaved in a dignified manner. David crowned Solomon son of Bathsheba as king. Bathsheba was a wise woman and always trusted in God. In relation to David, she became a faithful and loving wife and a good mother to her children - Solomon and Nathan.
Juno
The artist portrayed Saskia, his wife, in the image of Juno. Juno is the ancient Roman goddess of marriage and birth, the motherhood of women, and the female productive force. Patroness of marriages, guardian of family and family regulations. The main attribute of this goddess is a veil, a diadem, a peacock and a cuckoo. Rembrandt has a peacock in the lower left corner of the picture.
Potiphar's wife accuses Joseph (1655)
The story of the biblical patriarch Joseph is told in the book of Genesis. Even in the parental home of Jacob and Rachel, their beloved son Joseph appears as a dreamer. The father singles out Joseph among the brothers, and they, envious of his special position and beautiful clothes, sell Joseph into slavery to caravan men heading to Egypt. In Egypt, Joseph serves as a slave to the wealthy nobleman Potiphar, the chief of the pharaoh's bodyguards. Potiphar trusts Joseph with his entire house, but Potiphar's wife encroaches on his chastity, and Joseph runs away, leaving his clothes in the woman's hands. Potiphar's wife, falling in love with Joseph, and not achieving reciprocity, accuses him of rape. In the prison where Joseph was sent, with him are the king's baker and cupbearer. Joseph interprets their dreams, according to which the baker will be executed, and the butler will be forgiven in three days. Joseph's prophecy is being fulfilled, and the cupbearer remembers him when the Egyptian priests find it difficult to interpret Pharaoh's dream of seven fat cows devoured by seven skinny ones and about seven good spikelets devoured by the skinny ones. Summoned from prison, Joseph interprets the dream as a harbinger of the fact that after the next seven years of a good harvest, seven years of severe crop failure will come. He advises the pharaoh to appoint a confidant to stockpile during the famine. Pharaoh appoints Joseph as his confidant, grants him with his ring, gives him an Egyptian name, and as his wife - the Egyptian Asenef, the daughter of a priest from Heliopolis.
Woman bathing in a stream
In the painting, Rembrandt completely abandoned the classical ideal of a nude female figure. Here he portrayed Hendrickje, his second wife, undressing before bathing, contrary to all the canons of beauty. A golden robe lies at the water's edge, and a sweet young woman, shyly lifting her shirt, enters the cold water. She seems to emerge from the brown darkness, her shyness and modesty are read both in her easily written face and in the hands supporting her shirt.
Allegory of Music (1626)
Female. trying on earrings (1654)
The stoning of Saint Stephen
Adoration of the Magi
Portrait of Dirk Jan Pesser (about 1634)
Portrait of Martier Martens Domer
Portrait of a Man (1639)
Family portrait (1666-1668)
Portrait of an old man in red (about 1654)
Portrait of Titus (the artist's son)
Anatomy lesson (1632)
Venus and Cupid (1642)
Young Saskia (1633)
Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (1606-1669), Dutch painter.
Having entered Leiden University in 1620, Rembrandt soon left him and began to study painting. In the years 1625-1631. he worked in his hometown. The main in his work of the early period were paintings on religious subjects, as well.
1632 was a happy year for Rembrandt. He moved to Amsterdam and married a wealthy city dweller Saskia van Eulenburg, and the painting "Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Tulp" brought the young painter universal recognition.
The most prosperous decade in his life began for the master. He had many students (Rembrandt school). During this period he wrote such masterpieces as "Self-portrait with Saskia" (1635) and "Danae" (1636).
Rembrandt's extremely cheerful art of the 30s. combines the experience of the Renaissance and Baroque masters and an innovative approach to classical subjects.
The period of success came to an abrupt end in 1642: the magnificent work "Night Watch" - a group portrait of the members of the Amsterdam Shooting Guild - was rejected by customers who did not appreciate the artist's innovations and subjected him to harsh criticism.
Rembrandt practically stopped receiving orders, almost all of his students left him. Saskia died in the same year.
Since the 40s. Rembrandt abandoned theatrical effects in his work, the mystical, contemplative principle intensified in his painting. Often the artist turned to the image of his second wife - Hendrickje Stoffels.
The painting The Holy Family (1645), a series of self-portraits, and the best landscapes are marked with depth, calmness and emotional richness. But setbacks continued to haunt Rembrandt: in 1656 he was declared an insolvent debtor, the property was sold at auction, and the family moved to a modest house in the Jewish quarter of Amsterdam.
The painting “The Conspiracy of Julius Civilis” (1661) ordered by the Town Hall shared the fate of the “Night Watch”. In 1663, the artist buried his wife and son.
Despite the deterioration of his eyesight, Rembrandt continued to paint. A peculiar result of his work was the canvas "The Return of the Prodigal Son" (1668-1669).
It's always hard to talk about what you really love. You carefully choose the right words, turns of speech, you don't know where to start ... Therefore, I'll start with a little revelation: Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn - my favorite artist, and I got to know him for a very long time.
In childhood - in the Hermitage, with the stories of the professor-father. In his youth - at the MHC lessons at the institute, with old slides in a dark auditorium on long December evenings. In his youth - in amazing Amsterdam, laughing happily in the rays of the setting August sun. I have already read hundreds of lectures about Rembrandt, conducted more than a dozen excursions, but still there is a feeling that now you have to plunge into something unknown, huge, incomprehensible.
It is like jumping from a pier into the waters of the sea, on which you are for the first time. You don't know if the water is cold there, how many stones are at the bottom. It is anticipation and doubt that makes your hands tremble nervously. There is only one way to defeat this - to take a running jump, feeling how your heart is pounding and how at one moment the whole world around you is carried away somewhere into the distance, and you are now alone with something completely new ... Well, what then! We jump, open our eyes and watch!
At the age of 27, he had everything an artist could dream of. Glory, fame, money, beloved woman, hundreds of orders. He was considered the best master of portrait painting in one of the richest cities of his time, in the pearl of northern Europe - Amsterdam.
Yes, there has never been an artist in the world capable of creating such a thing! The portrait had to be perfect, had to brighten up all the shortcomings of a person, but Rembrandt thought differently. His portraits were alive. They conveyed character, there was a conflict in them. Here is a fragment of the portrait of the main tax collector of the province of Holland, Jan Vtenbogart.
Almost the entire state of the republic passed through the hands of this man. And his clothes - an airy lace collar, a long coat made of Russian sable fur - clearly testifies to his condition. Now just look at those eyes. In them you see sadness ... And immediately I remember the canvas of the great predecessor of Rembrandt -. Does not the apostle look at Christ with the same expression when he calls him to him? This portrait is the story of a very rich, but very unhappy man, and the Dutch painter was able to show it in one frozen moment.
Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn spent all his free time studying facial expressions. He stood for hours at the mirror and made faces, which he then transferred with charcoal to paper. It was important for him to catch the slightest shades of emotion.
The person's face, according to the artist, was a mirror of the soul, he realized this long before Oscar Wilde with his "Portrait of Dorian Gray". But portraits are not the only thing that Rembrandt excelled at. His large canvases impress us no less. The play of chiaroscuro, which Caravaggio so developed in his painting, takes on a truly gigantic scale with our master.
He was only 28 years old when he created his first absolute masterpiece. This is the painting "Descent from the Cross". You simply cannot pass by this painting in the Hermitage. In one moment, the artist managed to depict the whole essence of Christianity, to tell one of the greatest human stories as honestly and touchingly as possible, in a way that no one did either before or after him.
Jerusalem in the background is drowning in darkness. The Savior is dead. We see his lifeless body in the center of the picture. This is the moment of the highest despair; no one believes in the resurrection yet. People see only the corpse of a man whom they loved and who was worshiped as a god, and the Virgin Mary faints, her skin is deathly pale - she has just lost her only son.
There is one detail on this canvas that does not immediately catch the eye. This is lighting. The source of light is a lantern in the boy's hands, but the body of Christ and the clothes of the apostle holding him in his arms reflect the light like a mirror. And it is through the light that the true story is told here, the philosophical meaning of the picture is revealed.
The light of the lantern is the light of faith, and what we see in the picture is an introduction to its mystery. The feeling is created that the very body of the Savior becomes the source of light here. The face of the Mother of God and the shroud illuminated by the dim light of a candle, in which the body of Christ should be wrapped, stand out from the darkness. On this canvas, Rembrandt first used a technique that in the last years of his life became the main one in his work.
And now we see how a person, who perfectly mastered the technique of writing, painted all the central figures on the canvas in the smallest detail, but, as they moved away from the light, the faces of people became more and more blurred, almost indistinguishable. Everything is very simple - the mystery of what is happening passed them by.
However, there is another character on this canvas that is not noticeable at first glance. Despite being in the shadows, Rembrandt portrays him very clearly. In the lower right corner of the canvas, from the darkest place, hiding behind the stems of a thistle, the Devil looks at you in the form of a dog and as if asks you a question:
"Have you joined in what is happening?"
Yes, the Dutch master never had enough frames for the picture; he dreamed that his canvases would become a part of this world, and the viewer would become a direct participant in what was happening. But it was precisely this desire that drove him from the heights of glory into the abyss of age-old oblivion.
Unhappiness and oblivion come as swiftly as luck and glory. Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn experienced this firsthand in 1642. Of course, there was grief before that: his children died in infancy. Only one son survived, Titus, born in 1641. But a year later, his beloved wife Saskia, with whom he lived for many years, left this world. And along with this loss, luck turned away from the artist, turned away at the moment when he created one of his greatest paintings.
We can talk endlessly about Rembrandt's "Night Watch". This canvas is so large-scale in its content, so unique in its structured composition that the history of its creation is quite worthy of a separate book, not an article. But, as often happens in life, it was this creation, which subsequently radically changed the entire development of world painting, was rejected by contemporaries.
The clients did not like the way they were portrayed, and many of them refused to pay for the artist's work. The most famous painter of the Netherlands has never experienced such humiliation. In one year, Rembrandt lost his beloved wife and failed with his best work. It would seem that this is quite enough, but no, this was only the beginning of the tragedy. Orders became less and less (classicism and the style of ceremonial portraits became fashionable), and soon the artist's property was sold for debts. From a huge mansion in the very center of Amsterdam, he was forced to move to the outskirts of the city, to the Jewish Quarter, where he rented several rooms with his beloved son Titus.
The most interesting thing is that Rembrandt could easily adapt to the latest fashion trends in art and again receive a lot of money for his canvases. But the painter was convinced that he had to create a completely new style. His portraits were no longer rich people, but the most ordinary citizens of the city of Amsterdam. Such is, for example, "Portrait of an old Jew".
Rembrandt was not interested in the detailed depiction of all items of clothing, he strove for greater abstraction, sought to show the feelings of his characters in perfect accuracy. For his stubbornness, he received only suffering and slaps in the face. This happened with his painting "The Conspiracy of Julius Civilis".
Instead of a classic, pompous, patriotic image, the old master presented this to the public.
Before us is a picture of a barbaric feast, rude, unsightly. This canvas was almost 300 years ahead of its time, anticipating the painting of Expressionism. Not surprisingly, the master's masterpiece was rejected, and his name was covered with indelible shame. But it is precisely these last eight years of his life, spent in absolute, impenetrable poverty, that are one of the most fruitful periods in the work of Rembrandt.
I think that I will write about the paintings of that period, including his "Return of the Prodigal Son," in a separate article. Now I want to tell you about something else. It always amazed me how Rembrandt could work and develop his talent when the blows of fate rained down on him from everywhere. This could not go on for long, and the artist had a presentiment of this.
The final blow is always delivered to the most sore spot. They had their only son, Titus, a very sickly boy who looked like his dead mother. It was him that Rembrandt portrayed then most often: in the form of an angel in the painting "Matthew and the Angel", and reading, and in various costumes. Perhaps the painter thought that with the help of his talent he would somehow be able to postpone the inevitable ... Failed ...
In my opinion, "Portrait of Titus in a Monk's Cassock" is one of the most heartfelt paintings by Rembrandt. She showed all her father's love, all the talent of a painter. In all these coarse strokes, in this darkness advancing on the young man from the left, in the plants already surrounding his body, one stands out - the pale face of the artist's son with downcast eyes full of humility.
Titus died in 1668, Rembrandt survived him only for a year.
He was dying on the outskirts of Amsterdam, absolutely alone, having received everything in this life and having lost everything. They forgot about his canvases for a long time ... But 150 years passed, and already other artists heard what the master was trying to tell his contemporaries, who chose his own unique path instead of fame and money.
