A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings V: The Small-Scale History Paintings

689 Pages·2016·797.95 MB·English

by  Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn

A CORPUS OF
R E M B D T
PAINTINGS
V
A CORPUS OF
REMBRANDT
PAINTINGS
Stichting Foundation
Rembrandt Research Project
A CORPUS OF
REMBRANDT
PAINTINGS
V
SMALL-SCALE
HISTORY PAINTINGS
Stichting Foundation
Rembrandt Research Project
A CORPUS OF
REMBRANDT
PAINTINGS
ERNST VAN DE WETERING
with contributions by
JOSUA BRUYN, MICHIEL FRANKEN, KARIN GROEN,
PETER KLEIN, JAAP VAN DER VEEN, MARIEKE DE WINKEL
with the collaboration of
MARGARET OOMEN, LIDEKE PEESE BINKHORST
translated and edited by
MURRAY PEARSON
with catalogue entries translated by
JENNIFER KILIAN, KATY KIST
Frontispiece:
V 19 A woman wading in a pond
(Callisto in the wilderness), 1654
London, The National Gallery

Of this edition a limited number of copies have been specially bound and numbered.
Subscribers to the complete special bound set will receive subsequent volumes with an identical number.
This is copy number
Disclaimer
This is a publication of the Stichting Foundation Rembrandt Research Project. The opinions expressed in this volume (V), and the
previously published volumes I-IV in the Series A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings, should be understood as “opinions” that are meant for
academic use only. The opinions represent the Foundation’s best judgment based on available information at the time of publication.
The opinions are not statements or representations of fact nor a warranty of authenticity of a work of art and are subject to change
as scholarship and academic information about an individual work of art changes. Opinions have been changed in the past according
to new insights and scholarship. It should be understood that forming an opinion as to the authenticity of a work of art purporting to
be by Rembrandt is often very difficult and will in most cases depend upon subjective criteria which are not capable of proof or
absolute certainty. Therefore, the conclusions expressed in the volumes are only opinions and not a warranty of any kind. Third parties
cannot derive any rights from these opinions. Neither the Foundation, nor the members of its board, nor the authors, nor the
cooperators, nor any other parties engaged in the Rembrandt Research Project accept any liability for any damages (schade), including
any indirect or consequential damages or losses and costs. Anyone is free to disagree with the opinions expressed in these volumes.
We are grateful for the help of René J.Q. Klomp (Stibbe Lawyers, Amsterdam) and Ralph E. Lerner (Sidley Austin Brown & Wood
Lawyers, New York).
Stichting Foundation Rembrandt Research Project Published by Springer,
A CORPUS OF REMBRANDT PAINTINGS V P.O. Box 17, 3300 AA Dordrecht, the Netherlands
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© 2011, Stichting Foundation Rembrandt Research Project
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Contents
preface
IX Catalogue
bibliographicaland other abbreviations
XVI
Catalogue of the small-scale history and genre paintings
1642-1669 by Rembrandt and his pupils
Essays
V 1 Rembrandt
Chapter I Susanna and the Elders, 1638/1647.
Berlin, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin,
towards a reconstruction of rembrandt’s art theory 3
Gemäldegalerie 325
The advantage of the small-scale paintings 3-6
The basic aspects (de gronden) of the art of painting 6-10 V 2 Pupil of Rembrandt (with intervention by Rembrandt)
From Van Mander to Rembrandt to Van Hoogstraten 10-14 (free variant after V 1)
Confusions over the meaning and purpose of Van Mander’s and The toilet of Bathsheba, 1643.
Van Hoogstraten’s treatises 15-28 New York, N.Y., The Metropolitan Museum of
Drawing 29-34 Art 343
The proportions of the human body 35-48
Posture and movement of the human figure 49-52 V 3 Rembrandt
Ordonnance and invention 53-64 Christ and the woman taken in adultery, 1644.
Affects 65-70 London, The National Gallery 355
Light and shadow 71-80
Landscape 81-88 V 4 Rembrandt
Animals 89-97 The Holy Family, 1645.
Drapery 98-102 St Petersburg, The Hermitage Museum 371
Colour 103-112
Handling of the brush 113-123 V 5 Pupil of Rembrandt
Space 124-128 The Holy Family at night, 1645/46.
Towards a reconstruction of Rembrandt’s art theory 129-140 Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum 379
Chapter II V 6 Rembrandt or pupil
an illustrated chronological survey of rembrandt’s The Holy Family with painted frame and curtain, 1646.
small-scale ‘histories’: paintings, etchings and a selection Kassel, Staatliche Museen Kassel, Gemäldegalerie
of drawings. with remarks on art-theoretical aspects, Alte Meister 389
function and questions of authenticity 141
V 7 Rembrandt and pupil
For a Table of contents of this Chapter (including reattributions) 146-147
Tobit and Anna with the kid, 164[5/6].
Berlin, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin,
Chapter III
Gemäldegalerie 405
rembrandt’s prototypes and pupils’production of
variants 259 V 8 Rembrandt and pupil
Joseph’s dream in the stable at Bethlehem, 164[5].
Appendix 1 Berlin, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin,
an illustrated survey of presumed pairs of rembrandt’s Gemäldegalerie 411
prototypes and pupils’free variants 262
V 9 Rembrandt
Appendix 2 Abraham serving the angels, 1646.
a satellite investigated 271 U.S.A., private collection 418
Appendix 3 V 10 Copy after Rembrandt’s (lost) Circumcision [1646].
two nearly identical variations on rembrandt’s 1637 Braunschweig, Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum 427
in the
THEANGELRAPHAELLEAVINGTOBITANDHISFAMILY
louvre 276 V 11 Rembrandt
The Nativity, 1646.
Chapter IV München, Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen,
on quality: comparitive remarks on the functioning Alte Pinakothek 435
of rembrandt’s pictorial mind 283
V 12 Pupil of Rembrandt (free variant after V 11)
The Nativity, 1646.
Chapter V
London, The National Gallery 447
more than one hand in paintings by rembrandt 311
V 13 Rembrandt
Nocturnal landscape with the Holy Family, 1647.
Dublin, National Gallery of Ireland 457
V 14 Rembrandt
The supper at Emmaus, 1648.
Paris, Musée du Louvre 465
vii
contents
V 15 Pupil of Rembrandt (free variant after V 14) V 26 Pupil of Rembrandt(?)
The supper at Emmaus, 1648. Christ and the woman of Samaria 1659[?].
Copenhagen, Statens Museum for Kunst 479 St Petersburg, The Hermitage Museum 607
V 16 Unknown painter (free variant after V 14) V 27 Rembrandt or pupil
The supper at Emmaus. Jupiter and Mercury visiting Philemon and Baucis,
Paris, Musée du Louvre 489 1658[?].
Washington D.C., The National Gallery of Art 613
V 17 Rembrandt or pupil
The prophetess Anna in the Temple, 1650[?]. V 28 Rembrandt
Edinburgh, National Gallery of Scotland 495 Tobit and Anna, 1659.
Rotterdam, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen 621
V 18 Rembrandt
The risen Christ appearing to Mary Magdalene, V 29 Rembrandt
‘Noli me tangere’, c.1651. Esther and Ahasuerus, [1660?].
Braunschweig, Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum 507 Moscow, Pushkin Museum 635
V 19 Rembrandt V 30 Rembrandt
A woman wading in a pond (Callisto in the The Circumcision in the stable, 1661.
wilderness), 1654. Washington D.C., The National Gallery of Art 647
London, The National Gallery 519
V 20 Rembrandt (with later additions) Corrigenda et Addenda 659
The Polish Rider, c.1655.
New York, N.Y., The Frick Collection 535
Indexes
V 21 Rembrandt
index of paintings catalogued in volume iv
A slaughtered ox, 1655.
Paris, Musée du Louvre 551 Present owners 660
Previous owners 661
V 22 Rembrandt (with additions by another hand) Engravers 662
Joseph accused by Potiphar’s wife, 1655. indexes of comparative material and literary
Berlin, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, sources
Gemäldegalerie 563
Drawings and etchings by (or attributed to) Rembrandt 663
Paintings by (or attributed to) Rembrandt 665
V 23 Pupil of Rembrandt (free variant after V 22)
Works by other artists than Rembrandt 667
Joseph accused by Potiphar’s wife, 1655.
Literary sources 669
Washington D.C., The National Gallery of Art 577
concordance
671
V 24 Rembrandt and pupil
Christ and the Samaritan woman at the well, [1655].
New York, N.Y., The Metropolitan Museum of
Art 585
V 25 Pupil of Rembrandt
Christ and the woman of Samaria, [1]65[9].
Berlin, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin,
Gemäldegalerie 597
viii
Preface
This preface can perhaps best begin by explaining the properties and stylistic characteristics of Rembrandt’s
rather puzzling title of the present Volume: ‘The small- works seemed, after all, to change only gradually and to
scale history paintings’. follow a logical development. Was it therefore not best to
In such paintings the figures were as a rule represented follow that development? Our work on Volume II, which
full length and engaged in some kind of action in a more was for a large part devoted to the many portraits that
or less clearly defined interior or exterior spatial setting. Rembrandt painted between 1631 and ’35, taught us
This demanded of the painter not only insight into com- however that there were specific advantages in working
plex compositional problems, but also an understanding of with a larger group of paintings, in which Rembrandt had
the possibilities of light and shadow, and the skill to render worked from very similar pictorial starting points. For
the appropriate gestures and affects. He had to have a example, we learned that in his rendering of the anatomy
thorough knowledge of the relevant Biblical or mytholo- and lighting of the face, in the treatment of the back-
gical stories and the associated costumes and other access- ground or in his handling of contours and contrasts, Rem-
ories. Moreover, he had to be a competent painter of brandt developed certain ideas, which he then often modi -
landscapes, architecture, still lifes and animals. In short, fied, together with skills that were in part rooted in these
the painter of such works in Rembrandt’s time was con- ideas. The insights thus gained also allowed us to avoid
sidered to be an all-rounder. But it was also expected of confusing Rembrandt’s works with those of pupils or other
him that he would be both inventive and possessed of a associates involved in the production of portraits, or with
powerful visual imagination. Producing a history piece, in later fakes or imitations. That, after all, was the aim which
fact, was considered the most demanding challenge that a the Rembrandt Research Project had set as its priority.
painter could undertake. This experience with the early portraits was one of the
Unlike Rubens, for example, Rembrandt seldom had main reasons, following a methodological reappraisal of
occasion to paint history pieces on a life-size scale. One the whole project between 1989 and ’93, for changing to a
can in fact best get to know Rembrandt as an all-round thematic approach.1 It gradually became clear to us that
painter through his c. 75 small-scale history pieces, for it with this thematic way of working we could get closer to
would seem that he deliberately chose this type of paint- Rembrandt’s way of thinking and working in the face of
ing in order to develop further his abilities as an artist specific artistic challenges. Initially we thought that these
immediately after his period of apprenticeship. By insights were no more than an interesting spin-off from
analysing these works, therefore, one gets closest to Rem- our research on authenticity, but this spin-off became
brandt’s ideas about a number of fundamental aspects of increasingly important as an additional tool in the order-
the art of painting. ing and sifting of the relevant part of Rembrandt’s o euvre.
In Volume IV, devoted to his self-portraits, we tried to On a more limited scale we had already had this experi-
understand the figure of Rembrandt in the representation ence in working on the first three volumes. Thus, work on
of his own appearance and how he saw himself in relation Volume I produced insights into Rembrandt’s use of mate-
to his major predecessors and among those art lovers rials, painting technique and workshop practice. In the
interested in his work. In the present Volume we approach Volumes II and III our insight developed into Rem-
Rembrandt as an artistmost intimately through an analysis brandt’s teaching and the workshop production linked to
of his many small-scale history pieces (and the small it. But with the thematic way of working in Volumes IV
group of genre pieces which are in many respects related and V there opened up much wider vistas that needed to
to them). be explored if we were to get a grasp on the relevant field
The compilation of an oeuvre catalogue – which was of Rembrandt’s activities. In the work on the self-portraits,
originally the ultimate objective of the Rembrandt for example, this led to the realization that we also needed
Research Project – is not in the first place a matter of get- to include in our investigation the etchings and drawings
ting to know Rembrandt as man and artist but rather of that Rembrandt had produced before the mirror if we
ordering and describing his painted oeuvre. However, in wanted to understand Rembrandt’s exceptional pro-
the work on these last two Volumes of the Corpus the the- duction of self-portraits and the great variety of functions
matic approach to this oeuvre proved to have great advan- of these works in their full compass. It was only through
tages. Not only has our knowledge of hitherto often this integral approach that the realization dawned that
unknown aspects of his work been enormously enriched, others in Rembrandt’s workshop were also producing ‘self-
this approach also turned out to serve the original goal of portraits’ of Rembrandt, an advance in our understanding
the Rembrandt Research Project in ways that were wholly in which a key role was played by research m ethods of the
unexpected. physical sciences to identify the relevant works.
At the project’s inception it seemed obvious that one What then are the fruits in the present Volume of our
ought to deal with Rembrandt’s paintings in the chrono- investigation of the small-scale history pieces?
logical sequence of their origin. But because of the multi- The cataloguing of the oeuvre, naturally, had to take
faceted nature of Rembrandt’s production, that meant precedence in this Volume too. The second half of the
treating very different types of paintings all mixed to- book comprises 30 often very extensive catalogue texts
gether. Thus a portrait could follow a landscape which in
turn followed a history piece which succeeded a self-por-
trait and so on. And yet initially there was much to be said
1 A detailed account of this reorientation can be found in the Preface of Vol.
for the chronological way of working: both the material IV and on www.rembrandtresearchproject.org
ix