Rembrandt

This article will touch upon Rembrandt’s Portrait of Johannes Wtenbogaert : its
historical value, provenance, auction policy, auction price, acquisition and present
status. In 1633 Rembrandt painted the fabulous Portrait of Johannes Wtenbogaert
(aka Uytenbogaert / Uitenbogaert / Uyttenboogaard (1557-1644)). He was the
foremost clergyman of the moderate group of Protestants who followed the tolerant
tenets of Jacobus Arminius.

The significance of the German philosopher and social thinker, Georg Simmel (1858–1918), is only now being recognised by intellectual historians. Through penetrating readings of Simmel's thought, taken as a series of reflections on the essence of modernity and modern civilisation, Efraim Podoksik places his ideas within the context of intellectual life in Germany, and especially Berlin, under the Kaiserreich. Modernity, characterised by the growing differentiation and fragmentation of culture and society, was a fundamental issue during Simmel's life, underpinning central intellectual debates in Imperial Germany. Simmel's thought is depicted here as an attempt at transforming the complexity of these debates into a coherent worldview that can serve as an effective guide to understanding their main parameters. Paying particular attention to the genealogy and usage of the concepts of Bildung, culture and civilisation in Germany, this study offers contextual analyses of Simmel's philosophies of culture, society, art, religion and the feminine, as well as his interpretations of Dante, Kant, Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, Goethe and Rembrandt.

Serpil Aygün Cengiz, 21. Ankara Uluslararası Film Festivali (11-21 Mart 2010) kapsamında Peter Greenaway'in 2008 yılı yapımı "Rembrandt: İtham Ediyorum" (Rembrandt's J'Accuse) filmini çözümlüyor. (19 Mart 2010, Batı Sineması, Ankara)

İngiliz yönetmen, ressam ve yazar Peter Greenaway, bu filminde Rembrandt'ın 1642 yılında yaptığı "Gece Nöbeti" isimli tabloda resmedilen milis kuvvetinin önceki kumandanının nasıl bir cinayete kurban gittiğini tam bir belgesel tadında (Koert van Mensvoort'un "powerpoint sinema" kavramı da bu film için kullanılabilir) izleyiciye aktarmaktadır. Peter Greenaway filminin adını " Rembrandt's J'Accuse" koyarak, vatana ihanetle suçlanıp ömür boyu hapse mahkum edilen Fransız ordusu subayı Alfred Dreyfus'ü savunan Émile Zola'nın Fransa Cumhurbaşkanı'na yazdığı ve 13 Ocak 1898'de yayımlanan "J'Accuse" (İtham Ediyorum) başlıklı açık mektuba gönderme yapmakta ve kendi filminde de cinayet işleyenleri, yalan söyleyenleri, iftira atanları, sanat eserlerine bıçakla/sülfirik asitle saldıranları, linç edenleri, suikast yapanları, Filistinlileri, Babillileri ve sinemayı aynı kefeye koyarak suçlamakta ve aslında herkesten ve her şeyden daha çok da görsel cahilleri suçlamaktadır. Peter Greenaway'e göre bu dünyadaki asıl suç, görsel okuryazar olmamaktır. Peter Greenaway, filminde, tabloda bulunduğunu iddia ettiği 31 kanıtı tek tek göstererek ve anlatarak izleyiciyi aslında gerçekleşmemiş bir cinayet hakkında ikna etmeye çalışmaktadır. Serpil Aygün Cengiz ise bu kanıtların neredeyse hepsinin uydurma olduğunu göstermeye çalışarak filmin çözümlemesini yapmakta ve kendisi Peter Greenaway'i itham etmektedir. Jean-Luc Godard "Çile" (Passion, 1982) filminde Rembrandt'ın "Gece Nöbeti" resmi için "Bu kompozisyon deliklerle ve kötü doldurulmuş boşluklarla dolu" demektedir. Serpil Aygün Cengiz yaptığı film okumasında, delikler ve kötü doldurulmuş boşluklarla dolu bu metni kullanarak görsel okuryazarlığı sadece Batı sanatı merkezli anlattığı için, çoğunun görsel cahil olduğunu iddia ettiği insanları, linç eden ve suikast yapanlarla ilişkilendirerek sunarken aynı zamanda "görsel cahilliği" belirli bir din ve coğrafya eğretilemesi ile gösterdiği için ve belgesel görünümünde hazırladığı metninde kendi imgelem dünyasından gelen materyali, herhangi bir (ön veya son) uyarıda bulunmaksızın izleyiciye gerçekliğin kendisi olarak sunduğu için Peter Greenaway'i itham etmektedir.

Pam Cook asserts, in her analysis of costume design, that “clothing marks the threshold between the body and the outside world, between private and public. Fashion… it is both self-expression and social pressure, compelling us to conform.”  The examples that the lecturer provided, which span the course of western history, illustrate the tension that fashion presents to individuals partaking in its use. Despite the technical mastery of Rembrandt, Memling, and Copley, fashion remains static through the medium of art and can only truly come to life through film. While these paintings, as they will examined further throughout this paper, attempt to tell stories about who these people were, they serve as snapshots of this tension between self-expression and social pressure.

The painting that depicts The Supper at Emmaus (1648, Louvre) was examined in the laboratory in 2006 and 2009, before and after restoration. This study showed that the format of the work had not changed since it was first painted. The artist’s working method according to the rule of fat over lean was also clearly observed. On the wall in the background, the artist had gouged out some areas of paint and removed some of the glaze to reveal the underlayers. A paint sample was taken to study the stratigraphy of the painted layer, the

In a "parenthesis of fascinated horror" before "the complete discovery and subjection of the body to science", Renaissance anatomists and poets shared peculiar emotions of dread and desire towards the bodies they dissected and described. Jonathan Sawday's ambitious project is to evoke the common taboos, resistances, and fears which the human body provoked in its various early modern investigators, while telling "stories of terrible cruelty, which are tinged by a form of dark eroticism". He is justifiably proud of the historical range of his study, across medicine, cartography, literature, the law, myth, art, theology, social history, and philosophy. But he seeks more than a synthesis of these disparate domains, hoping also both to sketch a new grand narrative about conceptual, practical, and phenomenological changes regarding the body, and further "if not to dispel, then at least to explain" our own multiple, ambiguous feelings about our innards. Thus he marvellously maintains simultaneous attention to culture and psychology, combining high theory with historical precision in rare and risky fashion.

Rembrandt werd al tijdens zijn leven in binnen- en buitenland beschouwd als een exceptioneel prentmaker en zijn etsen werden nog in de zeventiende eeuw gekarakteriseerd als apart, curieus en zelfs bizar, zoals we verderop nog zullen zien. Een deel van zijn geëtste oeuvre was bedoeld voor een kleine kring van prentconnaisseurs die oog hadden voor zijn referenties aan beroemde voorbeelden en die gretig zeldzame afdrukken verzamelden. Rembrandt 'schiep' voor hen proefstaten en maakte afdrukken op bijzondere papiersoorten. Hij was daarin uniek. De meeste van zijn collega-schilders zouden zelf nooit een prent maken, maar Rembrandts voorbeelden, onder wie Titiaan en Rubens, beseften wel dat de in veelvoud geproduceerde prenten instrumenteel konden zijn bij het vergroten van hun internationale reputatie en gaven daarom professionele graveurs opdracht hun schilderijen te reproduceren.

A by Warburgs Bilderatlas enthält auf der Bildtafel 55 zahlreiche eng aneinandergefügte Reproduktionen (Abb. 1). Schon der ausführliche Titel der Tafel Pamurteil ohne Auffahrt. Nach d. Sark[ophag]: Peruzzi und Marcanton. Auffahrt undZurücksinken [sic], Plein air als Substitution des Olymp. Entlehnung Manet-Caracci. Promenierendes Paar macht uns mit der Sammelabsicht des Gelehrten vertraut.1 Die meisten Abbildungen stellen folglich Paris-Urteile dar und belegen aus Sicht des Hamburger Kunsthistorikers das Wandern ikonographischer Formeln, die den berühmten Kupferstich desselben Themas von Marcantonio Raimondi nach Raffael betreffen. Überraschend auf der angefuhrten Tafel ist allerdings die Reproduktion von Edouard Manets Gemälde Dejeuner sur Pherbe aus dem Jahre 1863. Das berühmte Bild wird von Warburg sogar zweifach reproduziert. Um die Abhängigkeit Manets von Raffael zu verdeutlichen, hat der Gelehrte unter einer kleineren Reproduktion des Dejeuner einen maßstäblichen Ausschnitt des Kupferstichs angebracht, der zeigt, wie eng sich der moderne Maler am Renaissance-Vorbild orientiert hat.2 Ohne hier en detail auf Warburgs Problem der Typenwanderung eingehen zu können, sei ein anderer Vorschlag gemacht, um das Verhältnis von Manets Gemälde zu Marcantons Kupferstich zu beschreiben. Bekanntlich ist das Dejeuner eine Inkunabel der Moderne, die immer wieder den Ehrgeiz der Interpreten geweckt hat.3 Im Unterschied zu Warburg soll hier gefragt werden, ob die Verwendung des Motivs aus dem Iudicio dt Paride nicht mit einer subversiven Absicht Manets einherging. So läßt sich davon ausgehen, daß der französische Künstler gar nicht wollte, daß sein Zitat auffällt. Er verbirgt absichtsvoll den Bezug auf das berühmte Vörbild, indem er ein nebensächliches Motiv Raffaels im Sinne einer Metonymie nutzt, um einen anspielungsreichen Hinweis auf das berühmte Vorbild zu geben. Er konstruiert eine ironische Inversion, die seine akademischen Gegner verspottet. Aus einer mythologischen Historie wird ein Genrebild, aus Nymphen und Flußgöttern werden schlichte Ausflügler. Dabei besteht die Pointe des neu entstehenden Bildes gegenüber dem Vörbild darin, daß der Künstler trotz aller * Am 20. Juli 1907 bedankt sich Max Liebermann von Nordwijk aus bei Hugo von Tschudi für dessen Brief anläßlich seines 60. Geburtstages und fur den wohlwollenden Artikel, den der Direktor der Nationalgalerie im »Morgen« veröffentlicht hatte.7

Rembrandt: una vita allo specchio. 
Dagli autoritratti al selfie
(Leida, 15 luglio1606 – Amsterdam, 4 ottobre 1669)
di MULIERE Alessia

Rembrandt è un pittore che affascina per una infinità di temi e motivi, uno dei quali
certamente è l'insistenza con la quale  ritorna al tema dell'autoritratto. Per Rembrandt
l'autoritratto sarà una attività costante: dall'età di 20 anni fino alla sua morte all'età di 63
anni nel 1669, il pittore dipinge, disegna e incide il proprio viso quasi un centinaio di volte;
una serie di opere, giunte fino a noi, che testimoniano in modo inesorabile il passare del
tempo sul suo volto, dalla gioventù alla vecchiaia. Solo l’avvento della fotografia ha potuto
diffondere in tutta la società un simile processo di documentazione.
L’autoritratto si afferma soprattutto a partire dal Rinascimento: l'artista si raffigura da solo,
in primo piano o al lavoro nello studio; oppure inserito in un gruppo, in modo simbolico,
con elementi che lo contraddistinguono come personaggio storico o sacro; o ancora,
dissimulato ambiguamente nella scena dipinta. Infatti, sin dai suoi primi quadri tra il 1625 e
il '26 Rembrandt si rappresenta in scene religiose (La crocifissione,  1633, Pinacoteca  di
Monaco)  o  in scene di genere (Figlio  al  prodigo,  1635  Gemäldegalerie,  Dresda),
con impliciti significati o allusioni.
 
La contemplazione del proprio viso è in Rembrandt una meditazione sulle emozioni, sui
simulacri e la vanità della carne e, in questo modo, ci ha fornito un eccezionale documento
del suo aspetto fisico, ma soprattutto dei suoi stati d’animo: infatti, ritraendo il suo volto
man mano che invecchia, l’artista ci racconta la sua autobiografia, non solo delle qualità
fisiche ma anche psicologiche della propria persona, i lutti, le vittorie e le sconfitte, le forze
che vengono a mancare, e testimonia così, inesorabile e senza orpelli, il tempo che passa
per tutti.  È un Rembrandt che ama rappresentarsi in una varietà di costumi stravaganti,
sotto mentite spoglie di personaggi più disparati, passando da ricchi costumi e pose
trionfanti, alla resa cupa e malinconica di un uomo ormai stanco e disilluso.
Ma  che  cosa  ha  spinto  -  e  tutt'ora  spinge  -  l'uomo  a  duplicare  la  sua  immagine?
Narcisimo?    Egocentrismo?    Vanità?    Affermazione    di    sé?    Sono    tante    le
motivazioni che spingono l'uomo a lasciare traccia di sé, in tanti modi che invadono ilnostro mondo quotidiano (si pensi all'ormai celeberrimo  selfie). L’autoritratto pittorico, così
come la firma, rivela l’inesorabile allontanamento dell’artista dal suo status di artigiano, la
rivendicazione del suo ruolo creativo. Un'orgogliosa affermazione di sé: io ho fatto questo.
L'autoritratto è un genere che  affascina proprio per la sua capacità di  sostituirsi alla
persona di cui è copia, non tanto, o non solo, in riferimento ai tratti somatici, quanto al
pensiero, alla psicologia della persona, che risponde al bisogno di affermazione del sé.
La serie degli autoritratti di Rembrandt, dipinti o incisi, singoli o iN gruppo, ci costringono
ad affrontare il tema dell’autorappresentazione dell’artista e al suo eventuale rapporto con
il dilagare contemporaneo del selfie, l’“autoscatto” destinato alla pubblicazione sui social
network.

Afro-Amsterdam was not like what you think it was! During the 17th century, the African community lived amicably with the white community in the neighborhood where Rembrandt's home was located. Amsterdam's Rembranthuis museum opens up an undisclosed collection. Review of the exhibiton.

Die Josephsgeschichte ist in den persischen, indischen worden. Die Bilder gehen nicht nur auf eine gemeinsame †berlieferung in Torah und Altem Testament zurŸck, die von zahlreichen jŸdischen und muslimischen Tradenten weiter ausgeschmŸckt wurde. 1 Vielmehr weisen Bildkultur auf. So sind in Rembrandts Josephsbildern Motivanleihen aus persischen und indisch-moghulischen Miniaturen beruhen. Da Rembrandts Orientvorstellung in besonderem Ma § durch Miniaturen aus dem Moghulreich geprŠgt wurde, soll im Gegenzug auch die nahezu zeitgleiche Rezeption europŠischer Elemente in der Moghulmalerei nŠher betrachtet werden. Die Moghuln haben zwar der Josephsgeschichte keinen besonderen Stellenwert beigemessen, aber sehr wohl der Tobiasgeschichte und vielen neutestamentlichen Themen. Somit werden hier insbesondere moghulische Kompositionen nach christlichen Stichen von Maria mit dem Jesusknaben, Evangelisten und Engeln vorgestellt, um abschlie- §end die unterschiedlichen Strategien Rembrandts und der Moghulmaler bei der Rezeption der jeweils anderen Bildtradition herauszustellen. Rembrandts Vorliebe, seinen biblischen Figuren durch orientalische KostŸmierung Ð Turbane mit Fe-derschmuck, brokatbesetzte MŠntel und prachtvoll gewebte SchŠrpen Ð ein nahšstliches Kolorit zu verleihen, ist vielfach untersucht worden. Kristin Bahre weist darauf hin, dass Rembrandt und seine Zeitgenossen orientalisierende Motive in biblischen Historien vor allem aus zwei GrŸnden einsetzten: zum einen, um der ãForderung der Kunsttheorie nach historisch angemessener Darstellung eines Themas gerecht zu werdenÒ, und zum anderen, um durch ihr ãextravagantes Erscheinungsbild [É] den Blick des Betrachters zu lenkenÒ. 2 Rembrandts Vorgehensweise hebt sich aber insofern von der seiner Malerkollegen ab, als er die orientalisierenden KostŸmelemente offenbar in grš §erem Umfang von realen Kleidern, Waffen und TrachtenbŸchern sowie von indischen Moghulminiaturen ableitete. Somit entstammen die Orientalisierungen in seinem Werk also nicht allein seiner Fantasie oder dem Motivschatz der Bildtradition. 3 Einige der von Rembrandt verwendeten Artefakte und Miniaturen sind im Konkursinventar seiner Sammlung von 1656 dokumentiert. Dort sind ãein dito (Buch) voll merkwŸrdiger Miniaturzeichnungen, au §er verschiedenen Holzschnitten und Kupferstichen von allerhand TrachtenÒ 4 neben weiteren als ãostindischÒ, ãindischÒ, ãindianischÒ (oder ãindonesischÒ) 5 und ãtŸrkischÒ bezeichneten Dosen, Tassen, Waffen und KostŸmen an-gefŸhrt. 6

De Canon van de Nederlandse Geschiedenis staat op uitsterven. Er zijn nog twee keuzes: afschaffen of aanpassen. Ik kies voor een dynamische canon die jaarlijks kan worden aangepast aan de stand van het wetenschappelijke debat en naar eigen voortschrijdend inzicht.

Explores a transformation in the viewer’s understanding
of the subjectivity represented by the image of the artist in
Rembrandt Van Rijn’s Self-portrait with Two Circles (c. 1663–1669) at Kenwood House, Hampstead. Through an innovative intertemporal comparison with Max Beckmann’s superficially similar Self Portrait on Yellow Ground with Cigarette (circa 1923) it is shown how the transformation depends on the viewer’s deferred recognition of the sliver of reversed canvas cropped by the extreme right hand edge of Rembrandt’s painting. Once the edge of the canvas is noticed the
artist no longer appears to commune with the viewer but is
understood instead to be memorizing his own image in a mirror before turning to paint it. This transition from an enduring to an instrumental kind of self is then considered within the context of external and internal determinants of the painting: respectively, its intervention upon traditional representations of the artist and its analogy with the struggle between body and soul in Western philosophy and theology. In particular the imminent ‘swiveling’ of the
artist’s body away from communion with the viewer to self-depiction on the canvas enjoins the spectator to an act of disengagement that re-enacts the transition from a Platonic to a Cartesian alignment of body and soul. Disengagement involves empathy, however, so that the essay concludes by attempting to establish the case for interpreting the painting as a mirror image of an invented memory of the artist that shows him as art lovers might wish to see him. In this
way the dominant mimetic interpretation of the painting is qualified by one that admits memory and imagination. It entails a hypothesis that brings the external and internal determinants of the Kenwood portrait
together within the capacity of seventeenth-century self-portraits to encapsulate dialogue between viewers and their social world. The painting internalizes this world through symbolic representations of culture that mentor viewers into sharing the artist’s values.

What if art history was a system? That is my speculation here. In considering this I will both develop and summarize arguments I first formulated in my book Systems of Art. In short, I take a specific type of behaviour found in complex systems: that of positive feedback or ‘lock-in’. I then speculate as to whether such behaviour is evident in art history. Looking at specific art historical examples, my argument is that yes, it is and that in recognizing this, a new way of thinking about art and its histories — specifically in relation to what Craig Owens called ‘Representation, Appropriation and Power’ — is opened up.

Period in Art History: Dutch Art of the 17th Century.

Portraiture is the art of occasion in early modern Europe; patrons recorded their stages of life such as weddings, the birth of children, the getting of a job or new at court, insociety, or social position, old age and sometimes death. As with everywhere in Europe, the Dutch portrait was moving away from the more obvious signs of social staus, most significantly heraldry, to identify the sitter, towards marking the individuality by choice of dress, by a gesture, or the marks of wisdom or learning. Pairs of portrait, husband and wife, often followed conventions to be hung in a certain way, perhaps either side of a fireplace. Rembrandt and some other artists mixed modes by showing us people they knew seemingly as biblical figures or classical philosophers. Rembrandt also developed the etched print as a way of celebrating the fame of individuals, or as personal items for friends, or collectors.

The author, taking advantage of the magnificent opportunity afforded by the exhibition “Velázquez, Vermeer, Rembrandt. Miradas afines” organized by El Prado, confronts the Golden Age of Spanish painting with that of Holland, seeking the special and innovative features in Velázquez, Frans Hals, Vermeer and Rembrandt.

No existe, realmente, el Arte. Tan sólo hay artistas. Éstos eran en otros tiempos hombres que cogían tierra coloreada y dibujaban toscamente las formas de un bisonte sobre las paredes de una cueva; hoy, compran sus colores y trazan carteles para las estaciones del metro. Entre unos y otros han hecho muchas cosas los artistas. No hay ningún mal en llamar arte a todas estas actividades, mientras tengamos en cuenta que tal palabra puede significar muchas cosas distintas, en épocas y lugares diversos, y mientras advirtamos que el Arte, escrita la palabra con A mayúscula, no existe, pues el Arte con A mayúscula tiene por esencia que ser un fantasma y un ídolo. Podéis abrumar a un artista diciéndole que lo que acaba de realizar acaso sea muy bueno a su manera, sólo que no es Arte. Y podéis llenar de confusión a alguien que atesore cuadros, asegurándole que lo que le gustó en ellos no fue precisamente Arte, sino algo distinto.

Rembrandt, Rubens, Permoser: Glory and Splendour of Baroque Art Collections in Leipzig. Notes on the History of Collecting in Leipzig around 1700

The history of art has largely ignored the city of Leipzig. When studing early modern collection practice in Saxony, interest is traditionally oriented to the important electoral collections in Dresden. This finding is even more noteworthy since earlier studies have shown the considerable level and great diversity of the former civic collecting culture in Leipzig. Thus, over 90 collections with more than 100 collectors can be found from the beginnings, documented already in the 16th century. The collectors included wealthy bankers and merchants as well as pharmacists, scholars, and even artists. The article takes this academic lacuna as an opportunity to highlight the long history of private art collecting in Leipzig. It surveys a range from the early baroque "Wunderkammer" to esquisite 18th-century collections of paintings, prints, and drawings.

This essay confronts two different types of landscape representation: the classically composed landscape with lateral boundaries on the one hand and the laterally unlimited landscape on the other. The examples range from Campagnola, Carracci and Lorrain on the one hand and Seegers, Rembrandt and Friedrich to Hodler and Mondrian on the other.