Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn 1606 - 1669

Give a brief history of the Dutch united Provinces (8).

1. First used in 1579 when Protestant states of Northern Netherlands declared independence from Spanish rule. 2. There was constant warfare until the truce of 1609

3. Spain did not recognise the new State until the treaty of Munster was signed 39 years later in 1648.
4. Holland was the richest state in the united Provinces and its name has come to be used for the whole country though the official name is the Netherlands

The History of Tulips.

1. First appeared in Europe around mid-16th C 2. Imported from Turkey by the Austrian Ambassador 3. Trading began in 1634 speculating on future bulbs resulted in the crash of 1637 (Wall street-1929 a modern example) 4. During the peak a single tulip could attract unimaginable amounts 5. Example: the Gesneriana

Rembrandt Bathsheba

Rubens - Bathsheba

Compare Rembrandt to Rubens 1. Rubens and Rembrandt are contemporaries 2. Rubens based in Antwerp in Flanders and 3. Rembrandt in Amsterdam Holland 4. Rubens is an older style of art more classical and international 5. Rembrandts work is more characteristically Dutch. 6. His vision seems to come from within himself and not classical antiquity. 7. Rembrandts portraiture, especially of himself, helps us to relate to him better today.

Rembrandts portraits

1. The human face fascinated him from the beginning 2. This brought him many commissions 3. It is not the external appearance that that intrigued Rembrandt

4. The inner workings of the mind and the nature of the person in the picture he is fascinated with 5. The passing moods as well as the deep seated attitudes.

Map of Dutch Republic by Joannes Janssonius

Dutch society 1. 2. 3. 4. The middle class was growing into a new type of art patron Rembrandt was a millers son from a middle class background Along with the struggle for independence, Dutch society was also changing The growing wealth of the middle class created a strong demand for paintings such as institutional portraits and images of working life.

The Blinding of Samson Samsons enemies enlist the aid of Delilah to seduce Samson She has to learn the secrete of his enormous strength and tell them

She learns that his secrete lies in his hair and whilst he is sleeping she cuts it short
The Philistines can then capture him and they imprison him after first blinding him He manages to get revenge by pulling down the two main pillars supporting a roof that he is been shown to ridicule in a Philistine feast.

Rembrandts earliest works He had a love for melodrama A keen interest in the humanity of the people in the pictures Self-Portrait 1627

Early years in Amsterdam (16321636)

1. Rembrandt began to paint dramatic biblical and mythological scenes in high contrast and of large format seeking to emulate the baroque style of Rubens 2. The Blinding of Samson, 1636, 3. Belshazzar's Feast, c. 1635 4. Dana, 1636

Belshazzar's Feast, 1635.

Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640), Samson and Delilah, ca. 1610

Blinding of Samson 1636

self portrait Self portrait age of 21 shows Rembrandt in early adulthood in artistically dramatic pose A late work ten years before his death shows him looking out at us shows a face stripped of all pretensions looking earnestly at himself He examines himself with detached objectivity and an honest portrayal of personal failure.

1629

Saskia 1612- 1642

1. Saskia became an orphan at age twelve. 2. It is supposed Saskia met Rembrandt at the home of her uncle, Hendrick van Uylenburgh, a painter and an art dealer 3. She married Rembrandt in 1634 4. In 1635 they moved to a prosperous suburb in Amsterdam 5. Three of their children died shortly after birth 6. The only survivor was Titus 7. 1642 Dies aged 29 8. Geertjie Dircx was his next relationship 9. Was the wet nurse Rembrandt hired for Titus

The Anatomy Lesson of Dr Nicolaes Tulp of 1632

success
Rembrandt began to work as a professional portraitist about 1631. The Anatomy Lesson of Dr Nicolaes Tulp of 1632 shows how quickly he surpassed the smooth technique of the fashionable Amsterdam portraitists. All potential clients must have been impressed by the new vitality and pictorial richness he gave to the portraits. The picture still impresses us today by the dramatic concentration of the figures on Tulp's demonstration of the dissection of a forearm.

The corpse is the focus of the composition, by its intense brightness. From here, the eye of the spectator is led to the illuminated heads of the listeners, whose expressions and attitudes reflect different degrees of attention, and to the face and hands of Tulp, who is a most convincing representation of a scholar absorbed in his subject.

 With forceps in his right hand Tulp holds the muscles and tendons of the arm that control the movement of the hand, while the bent fingers of his left hand demonstrate an aspect of their wondrous action. The illusionism is enhanced by the vivid characterization of the individuals as well as by the artist's great power in dramatizing the moment within a coherent group. Without the strong chiaroscuro and the fine atmospheric quality that is combined with it, the picture would lose its intensity, the sculptural quality of the forms, and all the excitement of the moment. Here, psychological and pictorial tension combine to create the feeling of an extraordinary event.

Geertje Dircx
1. Would later charge Rembrandt with breach of promise and was awarded alimony of 200 guilders a year. The legal struggle that followed was to cost Rembrandt dearly not least of which was the loss of an entire year of painting 2. She seems to have been quite insane and tried to accuse him of a number of affairs. Making his life a living hell 3. He tried to have her committed into a womans prison to get her off his back. 4. Eventually she was condemned to twelve years' imprisonment, but became ill and was released after five years. A year later she died. 5. In the late 1640s Rembrandt began a relationship with the much younger Hendrickje Stoffels, who had initially been his maid. 6. In 1654, when she was pregnant with Rembrandt's daughter, Hendrickje had to appear before the church council for "living in sin" with Rembrandt, who was a widower and 20 years her senior.
7. Sarah waiting for Tobias - 1647? could be Dircx or Hendrickje Stoffels is unclear

Hendrikje 1. Even with the inheritance of Saskia, Rembrandt was still in financial difficulties 2. He was banned from trading at the Guild of St Luke because of debt 3. Hendrikje, with the aid of Titus, Rembrandts son set up an art dealership in which they managed to find a way to trade with Rembrandts work 4. It seems a happy and fulfilling partnership came to a tragic end when Hendrickje died in 1663 after the plague revisited Amsterdam
5. 6. Woman bathing in a river, Hendrikje Stoffels, 1654 Hendrikje may also have been the model for the Bathsheba painting.

Bathsheba at her bath 1654

1. This painting eliminates the usual depiction of David as seen in his earlier version which shows a tower in which we assume david is watching from 2. The only anecdotal references to the Bible story are the letter from David (not actually mentioned in Samuel) and the presence of an attendant drying her foot 3. Rembrandt's presentation of Bathsheba is both intimate and monumental. 4. As a result, the moralistic theme of previous treatments of the subject is replaced by a direct eroticism in which the viewer supplants David as voyeur. 5. This makes sense as it is Rembrandt as David and Hendrikje as Bathsheba

1640

Spendthrift
1. Rembrandt lived beyond his means, buying art and rarities, which probably caused a court arrangement to avoid his bankruptcy in 1656, by selling most of his paintings and large collection of antiquities. 2. which included . . . Old Master paintings and drawings busts of the Roman Emperors suits of Japanese armour among many objects from Asia collections of natural history and minerals 6. 1658 Rembrandt was forced to sell his house and his printingpress and move to more modest accommodation in 1660.
7. Self Portrait, 1658

Self Portrait 1659

 1661 his reputation dwindling, Rembrandt was contracted to complete work for the newly built city hall, but only after Govert Flinck, the artist previously commissioned, died without beginning to paint. The resulting work, The Conspiracy of Claudius Civilis, was rejected and returned to the painter; the surviving fragment is only a fraction of the whole work. 1662 he was still fulfilling major commissions for portraits and other works. When Cosimo III de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany came to Amsterdam in 1667, he visited Rembrandt at his house.

Unlike his fellow painters, Rembrandt decided to depict Civilis with one blind eye, as some of the sources had described his appearance. This was almost certainly the main reason for the Amsterdam magistrates to reject the painting.

The Batavian rebellion - The account in Tacitus

Took place in the Roman province of Germania Inferior (S. Netherlands) between 69 and 70 AD. led by the one-eyed chieftain Claudius Civilis Managed to destroy two legions and inflict humiliating defeats on the Roman army. After their initial successes, a massive Roman army led by Quintus Petillius Cerialis eventually defeated them. The Painting depicts the scene of the Oath in which Claudius called his fellow conspirators. . . . In which he "collected at one of the sacred groves, ostensibly for a banquet, the chiefs of the nation and the boldest spirits of the lower class", convinced them to join his rebellion, and then "bound the whole assembly with barbarous rites and strange forms of oath. The painting was commissioned for the gallery of the new city hall on the Dam, finished in 1655 (now the Royal Palace). History paintings were regarded as the highest in the hierarchy of genres in the 17th century (a view Rembrandt shared), and the Batavian revolt was regarded, and romanticised, as a precursor of the recently ended war against the Spanish.

1659

1669

1669 as St Paul

Last laugh 1669

The painter has portrayed himself as visibly aged in this work, which came at the end of a long series of some 70 self-portraits. And like no other, Rembrandt used them as a means of psychological research into his self. Thus his gaze, which is currently directed to the viewer, was primarily directed to his reflection. His raised eyebrows and open, perhaps laughing, mouth tell of the way he flouted every convention, with a buoyancy that only advanced age allows. And so Rembrandt documented his own physiognomy with a ruthless directness, and with so much paint we almost literally feel the furrows on his brow and cheeks and the heavy bags under his eyes.

How does he paint the face of Lady with an Ostrich feather? 1660

Haunting picture of tranquil sadness bravery and wisdom She has certainly experienced a History of sorrow and joy We can be sure of a history of sorrow triumphs and failures She is painted with light lingering on the once beautiful face
Rembrandt in 1660

The story of Joseph and Potiphars wife 1655 Joseph a Hebrew slave in Egypt works for Potiphar His wife lusts after him and tries to seduce him He resists her and flees leaving his jacket She accuses him of raping her and has him thrown into jail.

the protagonists. 1. The wife She is central in the painting, shifty of eye and false of gesture knows she not believed. She is dressed in finery only concerned only with herself and pointing to the cloak of Joseph as evidence. Her hand presses painfully to her breast showing her falsity but also the rejection she feels from Joseph She is also committed to a course that she is aware of in her falsity

2. Potiphar
The aging husband is aware of the embarrassment of his wifes behaviour and his own inadequacy He listens in shadow knowing full well the truth He has no choice but to accept his wifes accusations and in so doing protect his own reputation The interplay of falsehood is depicted noone able to tell the real story in the restrictions of the culture .

3. Joseph waits in the background for the inevitable disgrace he will undeservedly carry He is un-assertive un-aggressive and un-self pitying knowing Potiphars dilemma. Rembrandt lets us seen how Joseph commits his cause to God without demonstrable sign Only light and colour carry the deeper implications of the intense drama

What kind of judgements does Rembrandt make? He makes no distinction between virtuous and non virtuous His depiction is compassionate

Officers of the Company of the Amsterdam Crossbow Civic Guard under Captain Reynier Reael and Lieutenant Cornelis Michielsz Blaeuw. 1633 37.

 The portrait of the Officers of the St George Civic Guard is the first major group portrait by Frans Hals, and the first monumental civic guard painting in the new era of Dutch painting. Together with the leaders of public, charitable and professional associations, the civic guard societies were the main patrons to commission group portraits

 These civic guard portraits were an expression of the Baroque will to representation, whose tradition is rooted in the medieval era. There had been civic guards in the Netherlands since the 13th century.

They had played an important role in the emancipation of the cities and towns from feudal rule and had gained considerable political and military significance in the Netherlands' struggle for independence.

HALS, Frans Banquet of the Officers of the St George Civic Guard Companyc. 1627

Cornelis van Haarlem had already painted the officers of the St George Civic Guard in 1599. Hals, however, revolutionizes this type of painting.

 Instead of merely painting a row of individual portraits, he places them within a specific context by creating a banquet scene. This is not simply a moment captured at a table, but an extremely witty and calculated composition in which a scenic context is created between all the figures involved, and, on the other hand, each of the figures poses and acts independently and individually. Hals has found a new and persuasive solution to the problem of portraying a large group without difference of rank.

Frans Hals. Banquet of the Officers of the Civic Guard of St. Andrew. c. 1627-33.

This patronage took on considerable proportions in the course of the century. These group portraits are also of value as historical documents, for which lists were drawn up giving the names of the figures portrayed. The paintings themselves were displayed prominently on the premises of the respective association.

 Hals revolutionized this branch of painting; these are already not the scenes of official banquet, but merry friendly carousal with free and easy characters. But Hals never presented the scene in a theatrical fashion, as Rembrandt did with his Night Watch, and each of his sitters is given individual and equal attention. The painter was a contemporary of the heroic generation, which shaped the independent Holland and those energetic, brave, straightforward and purposeful people were close to him.

Probably Rembrandt's most famous and most controversial painting was given its erroneous title the Night Watch in the early 19th century. The title referred to the subdued lighting and led art critics to seek all manner of hidden mysteries in the painting.

The Title
The original title, recorded in the still extant family chronicle of Captain Banning Cocq, together with a sketch of the painting: "Sketch of the painting from the Great Hall of Cleveniers Doelen, in which the young Heer van Purmerlandt [Banning Cocq], as captain, orders his lieutenant, the Heer van Vlaerderdingen [Willem van Ruytenburch], to march the company out.
Rembrandt in1642

 It is, therefore, a "Doelen" piece or group portrait in which the captain can be seen in the foreground wearing black and the lieutenant wearing yellow. What sets Rembrandt's group portrait apart from other comparable paintings is his use of chiaroscuro as a dramatic device. Interpretations seeking a plausible action fail to take into account that the scenery is made up more or less of individual "types". The painting includes the entire repertoire of portrait poses and gestures from Rembrandt's store of figures.

 There is inevitably a sense of celebration in the portrayal of individuals in a Dutch group painting. Yet whereas Frans Hals, for example, draws together his individual participants around a banquet scene, Rembrandt breaks up the group, so that individual characters and participants become absorbed in their own actions, each standing alone.

Rembrandt van Rijn The Jewish Bride (The Loving Couple) 1666.

Authentic expressions 1. Despite the opulence and beauty of the costumes the true impact of the painting is in the authentic emotional expressions 2. He is careworn hair thinning and lined around his eyes and face. 3. He enfolds his wife with a tender embrace. 4. One hand on her shoulder the other on a gold chain around her neck 5. He makes no grand display only a quiet certainty. 6. Her hand rests on her womb the responsibility of motherhood and mature love 7. Her thoughts surrounded by receiving and giving in the bounds of love 8. It is likely it is a portrait of an unknown couple

Caring embrace

His hand lies across her bosom caring and tender also familiar Her hand rests on his gentle pressure both acknowledging and returning The full significance of their union lies deep within
Shimmering sleeve The paint is built up in layers of thick impasto and glazes The brushwork imitates the effect of pleats and folds The jewellery is picked out with flecks and dots of thick paint highlighted with white

The new medium

The new medium of etching is Rembrandts medium He brought it to a new level a medium more versatile than metal engraving Rembrandt experimented with the medium with different textured papers and inks Often reworked the etchings several times

The Hundred Guilder Print, c.1647-1649, etching

Describe the components of the Dutch still-life tradition, give an example. (5) By 1640 the Dutch still life tradition had already been established Usually a table against a blank background with the objects placed in a general up and diagonal direction Would commonly have objects glasses , silver plates and the remains of a sumptuous meal conveying the idea of opulence and plenty Also the idea of transience and Vanity William Heda, still life 1637

Pieter Claesz Still-life with Turkey-Pie Oil on wood Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Works of this kind, in which he was rivalled only by Kalf, gave him ever greater opportunity than his fish pieces to demonstrate his ability to show the play of light on varied surfaces and organize forms and colors into an opulently blended composition. He worked in various towns before settling in Overschie in 1678.

How does this compare with the still lives of Jan De Heem?

1. The still life of Heda can be broken down into small areas each with an intensity of their own 2. The highly detailed nut and the refracting light glass are examples of this. 3. De Heem paints another traditional theme of flowers which is more extrovert than Heda 4. Heda is more inward and reflective de Heem is more open but both glory in close

Vermeers woman holding a balance Also known as woman weighing gold It is a solemn allegorical work She stands before the symbols of material wealth weighing them for their value Whilst behind her in the painting the figure of Christ is seen weighing souls. She is clearly pregnant The strongest accents of orange/gold do not emanate from her jewels but from the window

What does the woman remind you of? The light falls from the covered window onto her stomach We could read annunciation symbolism into this Whats the significance of the painting on the wall? Judgement day The painting on the wall is possibly a version of the last judgement by Jean Bellagambe The serenity of the room contrasts with the chaos of the figures in the picture What is she doing and what is the artist trying to show us? Mood of Contemplation She is painted with an expression of contemplation She is meditating on the her value system She is wealthy but does not overdress and wears a plain white hood The mirror opposite her suggests quiet contemplation.

The Balance She holds the balance with a delicate gracefulness It is finely painted and just glimmers where the light catches the empty scales There is also an issue of integrity her in that the scales are even This is a reference to our lives that must be lived with integrity because all with be revealed in the last judgement Family Valuables A rich blue cloth has been pushed back and scattered over it are her collection of pearls and gold jewellery The play of light on these is almost the only indication of their presence The touches of light indicate their transience and how quickly these things can pass away the reference is to where your trust is, in your treasure or in your faith.

How does Vermeer paint silence in Woman holding a balance? The shutters are almost closed with light stealing in at the edges This diffused light catches the fur on her jacket, the pearls gleaming on the shadowed table It glances off carefully poised elements in the painting Silence is Vermeer way of expressing purity

What other themes are evident in this painting? (4) Also she is testing her empty balance and behind her is a picture showing the last judgment when all souls shall be weighed in another balance, The painting is balanced between light and dark and the last judgement shows in the background. Darkness and light are held in a delicate balance

VERMEER VAN DELFT, Jan Girl with a Pearl Earring (detail) c. 1665

What device did the artist use to assist him in his painting? The camera obscura (Latin: dark chamber) How did it work? By using a pin hole on the one side of a box This could create an accurate reproduction on a screen This would allow light to enter in and the rays would cross and fan out creating an upside down and reduced image on a screen or wall The artist could use this to plot the composition of his painting

Give an example, - describe what Vermeer does in his representation It is likely the artist used this to paint his interiors as well as the view of Delft. The view is unassuming descriptive topographical setting He is not inventing but describing But he is able to take bare facts and elevate them into a different level. There is no artifice but it appears as Delft but also the Heavenly Jerusalem This is seen in the plain task of a maid pouring milk but a sense of timelessness and Holiness

View of Delft - 1658

Describe the technique the Frans Hals used in his portrait panting. (4) Alla Prima Previously artists used an under-painting to achieve a consistent surface Hals pioneered a technique in which the paint was applied directly to the ground without under painting The broad brushstrokes and spontaneous textural qualities are evidence of this approach This pioneered the more spontaneous techniques of the 19th C

Give an example of this. (2) Portrait of William Coymans We see the detailed finery of his clothing painted in with rough strokes and spontaneous marks rather that delicate modelling.

Describe the kind of work that Hals made his reputation on.(5) Hals made his reputation by painting a series of portraits from 1620-25 All these show his brilliant skill in spontaneous observation These portraits vary from Nobility to low life drunkards His work has an immediate appeal in its virtuoso quality It is in his later impoverished years he rose to a level of depth in his work that pushes him to the realm of greatness

Describe a later work by Hals (4) The woman regents of the Harlem Almshouse was painted shortly before his own death. The previous witty bravado of his earlier portraits is forgotten in this wholly serious depiction He shows us not only the outward look of these tire old ladies Also shows their individual personalities and their attitude to their responsible work.