Rembrandt’s work
E. Delacroix’s phrase “Truth is the most beautiful and rare quality” became the essence of the work of the greatest Dutch artist Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (1606-1669). He left to descendants a huge artistic heritage: about eight hundred paintings and portraits, three hundred etchings and two thousand drawings. Each of his works is a testament to the highest skill and artistic truth. The life and career of this remarkable artist was tragic: from a brilliant career, universal recognition, wealth, a happy family life to complete oblivion, loneliness and poverty. Living in the Baroque era, Rembrandt was its brightest representative, who managed to express all the contradictions and characteristic features of his time.
The subject matter of Rembrandt’s works is infinitely varied. Each of them is an attempt to convey the spiritual evolution of a person, a tragic way of knowing life. The world of his characters, like reality itself, is complex and multifaceted. His heroes are people with conflicting characters and difficult fates. Some of them are carriers of wisdom and nobility, others can be considered as the embodiment of human weaknesses and vices. Sometimes these heterogeneous qualities are combined in one and the same human person, who often finds himself in the most difficult dramatic situations of moral choice.
Rembrandt’s work is distinguished by the deepest psychologism, the strongest intensity of passions and feelings. Giving the scenes elements of theatricality, Rembrandt actively uses the language of symbols and allegories, which can also be seen as a kind of artist’s tribute to the Baroque aesthetics.
Artistic metaphor of Rembrandt, the main principle of his creative method was the art of chiaroscuro, in which he, perhaps, had no equal.
The artist uses light to highlight the main semantic accents in the picture. Light pulsates on the faces, hands, clothes of his heroes, sets in motion all the action, dissolves in the darkness and again unexpectedly shines brightly and flashes. Contrasts of light and shadow enhance the dynamics of what is happening, tangibly highlight the color, shape, volume and texture of objects. This amazing feature of Rembrandt’s artistic skill was also noted by the Russian artist I. E. Repin:
“With special happiness he bathed in the transparent shades of his air, which is always inseparable from them, like the wonderful music of an orchestra, its trembling and moving in all depths of harmonious sounds.”
In the early paintings of Rembrandt, you can see many subtle transitions from dark to light, gradations of golden brown, red and olive colors. In later works, the effect of burning and smoldering tones often appears. The sparkling gold of brocade robes, transitions from dark cherry to bright shades of red hot coals, as if absorbing rays of light, and then to fading tones of orange – this is the artist’s colorful palette.
Pictures on mythological and biblical themes occupy a significant place in his work. The artist was especially attracted by the opportunity to respond to the eternal problems of life, to show their closest connection with modern reality. Mythological and biblical plots, devoid of the usual ideal interpretation, provided inexhaustible material for deep philosophical reflections on the essence of being and human life. A short parable or legend of the Old and New Testaments acquired vital reliability, persuasiveness and strength in his works. Each time he offered the audience his own reading of a famous plot, interpreting it as a scene from the life of ordinary people with their earthly passions and experiences.
Rembrandt entered the history of world painting as a brilliant master of self-portrait. From year to year, sometimes from day to day, he portrayed himself either cheerful or sad, then angry or indifferent. One hundred (!) Self-portraits created by him in painting and graphics – the story of his life, biography of the soul, the artist’s confession. In his early works, he carefully, through the eyes of a stranger, examines himself in the mirror, noticing the slightest external changes, stopping the moments of his own life. At first, he experimented a lot, changing facial expressions, postures, movements, using a different format, spectacular compositions, contrasts of light and shade. We see now a simple-minded boy from the mill, now a secular gentleman and a mischievous reveler, a ruler in an oriental fairy-tale dress. In the famous “Self-portrait with Saskia on his knees”, written shortly after marriage,he cheerfully raises a glass to his wife’s health, inviting the audience to share his happiness and joy with him.
But over the years, the unbridled joy of youth dies down. Now more and more often you can see the artist at work: with a palette or at an engraving table. He is not wearing expensive jewelry and rich brocade clothes, he is dressed in a work robe, a scarf or a bandage on his head. His thoughts and feelings have been suffered and deeply experienced, penetrating eyes are turned to the audience, they look into our souls … Now he is not examining, but studying himself. Introspection (self-observation) becomes the main thing in his work. The last self-portrait shows a toothless, elderly face, twisted with a grimace of laughter. Turning to us, he seems to say: “Look, this is what life has done to me …”
Rembrandt masterfully conveys the subtle, subtle and complex psychological states of the human soul. His characters invisibly move, think and feel right before our eyes, but at the same time remain alone with themselves. Their reflections are about the eternal, about the meaning of life and the inevitability of death. Smug burghers, arrogant officials, prim ladies, and hypocritical preachers look at us from his portraits. And next to them are poets and writers full of dignity and inner nobility, inspired people of art, talented scientists.
“Portrait of Jan Six” is considered one of the best creations of the artist. What does Rembrandt’s friend, poet, philanthropist and major industrialist think about? About a long and loyal friendship? About how and why their life paths began to diverge? In the face of Sixx – compassion, sincere and bitter sadness. He appears for a moment from the darkness of the room. A bright red cloak with gold embroidery is draped over his elegant light gray camisole with shiny buttons. A black wide-brimmed hat and a dark greenish background set off the expressiveness of an intelligent face. Light pulsates on his face, hands, clothes, he flutters in the air, setting in motion everything that is around. It seems to dissolve into a tangible darkness and suddenly suddenly flares up, enhancing the dynamics of the image.
“Fidelity of tone, truthfulness of gesture, impeccable severity of form are such that one cannot wish for the best … What artist would be able to create such a portrait?” – E. Fromentin wrote admiringly.
In later years, Rembrandt increasingly painted old faces. In their sad and unusually expressive looks, he reads a long life, full of hardships and anxieties. The wisdom of experience, a calm attitude to the approaching death are of particular interest to the artist. Old age is not the collapse of life, but its worthy and logical end.
The “Portrait of an Old Woman” captures an old woman alone with her feelings and thoughts. We do not know anything about her, there are no external details in the picture that tell about her past life. Her modest outfit is sparingly depicted – nothing should distract viewers from the image of her face under the red velvet hood. It is the face that becomes the spiritual focus of the picture. The old woman is immersed in silent meditation, inside herself, the posture is calm and free. There is nothing that could disturb her thoughtfulness, the measured flow of life, lasting an infinitely long …
Our acquaintance with the work of Rembrandt will be incomplete if we do not speak about the huge graphic heritage of the artist. It is known that Rembrandt worked a lot in the etching technique. He covered a metal board with a layer of varnish and applied a drawing on it with a thin needle. After that, he immersed the plate in acid, etching the metal in the scratched places. The deepened lines then allowed the drawing to be transferred to the paper.
Rembrandt’s etchings revealed new facets of his talent: fine detailing, a free and unconstrained touch, maximum picturesqueness, clarity of lines and volumes, amazing gradations of black and white, concealing inexhaustible possibilities of using light and shadow modeling of images. Compared to paintings, etchings are more diverse in subject matter: biblical subjects, landscapes, portraits. Each of the etchings is distinguished by high technique, a special sense of real space.
