This sumptuously illustrated volume examines the impact of Indian art and culture on Rembrandt (1606–1669) in the late 1650s. By pairing Rembrandt’s twenty-two extant drawings of Shah Jahan, Jahangir, Dara Shikoh, and other Mughal courtiers with Mughal paintings of similar compositions, the book critiques the prevailing notion that Rembrandt “brought life” to the static Mughal art. Written by scholars of both Dutch and Indian art, the essays in this volume instead demonstrate how Rembrandt’s contact with Mughal painting inspired him to draw in an entirely new, refined style on Asian paper—an approach that was shaped by the Dutch trade in Asia and prompted by the curiosity of a foreign culture. Seen in this light, Rembrandt’s engagement with India enriches our understanding of collecting in seventeenth-century Amsterdam, the Dutch global economy, and Rembrandt’s artistic self-fashioning. A close examination of the Mughal imperial workshop provides new insights into how Indian paintings came to Europe as well as how Dutch prints were incorporated into Mughal compositions.
The prodigious talent of Rembrandt Harmensz van Rijn (ca. 1606–1669), along with his disregard for many of the artistic conventions of his day, astonished, delighted, and dismayed his contemporaries. The full gamut of their reactions is revealed in these three biographies, which were first published in the decades following Rembrandt’s death and appear here in English for the first time in their entirety. These extraordinary documents, by German, Italian, and Dutch authors schooled in the conventions of neoclassicism, provide richly varied accounts of Rembrandt’s impact on the art world of his time. While the authors for the most part acknowledge his brilliance, sometimes grudgingly, they are wary of Rembrandt’s reliance on personal talent rather than on the rules of art. So, too, are they annoyed at his skill in manipulating the art market. Filled with colorful and amusing anecdotes, these critiques, handsomely complemented here with vivid illustrations, bring into sharper focus the originality and psychological acuity that remain Rembrandt’s trademark to this day. An informative introduction by the scholar Charles Ford situates these texts in the art-historical context of the seventeenth century.
Rembrandt's drawings display his emotional state with a candor unseen in other works. They function as a repository for his unfiltered feelings and perspectives of the world that surrounded him. Be it through haunting sketches of his first wife in the grips of a fatal case of tuberculosis, simple scenes of street life, or studies of elephants and tigers, Rembrandt communicates his feverish thirst for images, and his ability to represent these through the lens of his immediate emotional state. Commemorating the 350th anniversary of the artist's death and published in tandem with an exhibition at the Rijksmuseum of unprecedented scale, this stunning XXL monograph is the complete collection of Rembrandt's works on paper. Through the 700 drawings, brilliantly printed in color for the first time, and 313 etchings in pristine reproduction, we explore Rembrandt's keen eye, deft hand, and boundless depth of feeling like never before; and above all, we witness that he was far more than just a painter.
Rembrandt is completely mysterious in his spirit, his character, his life, his work and his method of painting. What we can divine of his essential nature comes through his painting and the trivial or tragic incidents of his unfortunate life; his penchant for ostentatious living forced him to declare bankruptcy. His misfortunes are not entirely explicable, and his oeuvre reflects disturbing notions and contradictory impulses emerging from the depths of his being, like the light and shade of his pictures. In spite of this, nothing perhaps in the history of art gives a more profound impression of unity than his paintings, composed though they are of such different elements, full of complex significations. One feels as if his intellect, that genial, great, free mind, bold and ignorant of all servitude and which led him to the loftiest meditations and the most sublime reveries, derived from the same source as his emotions. From this comes the tragic element he imprinted on everything he painted, irrespective of subject; there was inequality in his work as well as the sublime, which may be seen as the inevitable consequence of such a tumultuous existence. It seems as though this singular, strange, attractive and almost enigmatic personality was slow in developing, or at least in attaining its complete expansion. Rembrandt showed talent and an original vision of the world early, as evidenced in his youthful etchings and his first self-portraits of about 1630. In painting, however, he did not immediately find the method he needed to express the still incomprehensible things he had to say, that audacious, broad and personal method which we admire in the masterpieces of his maturity and old age. In spite of its subtlety, it was adjudged brutal in his day and certainly contributed to alienate his public. From the time of his beginnings and of his successes, however, lighting played a major part in his conception of painting and he made it the principal instrument of his investigations into the arcana of interior life. It already revealed to him the poetry of human physiognomy when he painted The Philosopher in Meditation or the Holy Family, so deliciously absorbed in its modest intimacy, or, for example, in The Angel Raphael leaving Tobias. Soon he asked for something more. The Night Watch marks at once the apotheosis of his reputation. He had a universal curiosity and he lived, meditated, dreamed and painted thrown back on himself. He thought of the great Venetians, borrowing their subjects and making of them an art out of the inner life of profound emotion. Mythological and religious subjects were treated as he treated his portraits. For all that he took from reality and even from the works of others, he transmuted it instantly into his own substance.
"In 1634 the up-and-coming painting talent Rembrandt van Rijn wed the love of this life in Friesland: Saskia Uylenburgh, the daughter of a councillor at the Court of Friesland. The story of their marriage is also that of seventeenth-century marriages in general, from courtship to drawing up a will. How did such a stylish wedding come about, and how did life proceed afterwards, when love and suffering were shared? Using evocative paintings, etchings, documents and precious wedding gifts, this book shows us the world of Friesland's most famous bride and groom ever--and that marriage vows back then actually appear to differ little from those of today."--from back cover
In the past, the distinctions between art and science weren't as clear-cut as they are today, and philosophers, researchers, and artists often shared insights and ideas. It was in that heady atmosphere that Sir Joshua Reynolds first rose to prominence, initially through his "Grand Style" paintings, but later for his work as a promoter of scientific research and the president and co-founder of the famed Royal Society. This text outlines some of Reynolds' most groundbreaking ideas about art, scholarship, and the intersection between the two.
This book sheds light on the fascinating ways Rembrandt and other Golden Age painters were influenced by Eastern culture. In the 17th century, Amsterdam was a vibrant hub of the burgeoning European trade with Asia, Africa, and the Levant, importing copious amounts of foreign items that powerfully stimulated the imagination of numerous Dutch artists. This was notably the case with Rembrandt, whose curiosity and voraciousness as a collector were legendary in his time. Throughout his prolific career, he drew on Eastern influences in genres as diverse as history painting and portraiture, including depictions in which he himself adopted Oriental styled attire. This lavishly illustrated book explores the inventive ways in which Rembrandt and his contemporaries accommodated Eastern imagery into their own repertoire, set within the wider context of Holland's rapidly expanding commercial and cultural exchange with its non-European trading partners. The problematic term "Orient" was widely used in Rembrandt's time and will be discussed at great length in this catalogue.
This book offers a succinct yet thorough introduction to 131 of the most intriguing, courageous, inspiring Christians who ever lived. It tells how they lived, what they believed, and how their faith affected the course of world history. Includes a timeline with a historical context for each individual, key quotes from or about each personality, and more than 60 photos.
