Rembrandt [antikvár]

INTRODUCTION Rembrandt spent his hfe pursuing the expression of values in which he passionately believed. He has been popularly misconceived as an enigma. This is basically false in that the only perceivable enigma is the one Rembrandt himself recognized: how to ask questions to which there are no answers; how to go on putting the questions in a different way in the full recognition of the limitations of human understanding. His passion was a passion for honesty in terms of himself and integrity in terms of his art. Possessing both good and bad qualities, Rembrandt had the strength to accept this and the desire to overcome his weaknesses. It is probably true, for example, that after the death of his wife Saskia, he rejected a woman whom he had promised to marry. His companion for a while, she did not respond well to his denials and threatened to bring him down with her accusations. Whatever the details of this episode, suffice it to say that Rembrandt was prepared to pay the price of his unethical behaviour in order to keep his extraordinary creative powers intact. It was these powers which enabled him to survive the cruellest changes of fortune in his family life and to weather the storms of bereavement and bankruptcy. Rembrandt wanted to give his all. The concept of genius, which is closely linked to the concept of a creative force, suggests some kind of transcendent reality, placing the artist on a higher plane, above other people, where his work does not need to be understood. In this book, we have tried to avoid demonstrating Rembrandt's genius, but have sought instead to situate the artist in the context of his times, in order to illuminate his life and his work and, finally, to reach a better understanding of the universal nature of his art. Seventeenth-century artists in France and Italy often depicted a world peopled by heroes or gods. The same tendency prevailed in the Low Countries and for a certain time manifested itself in Rembrandt's work. But collectors and lovers of art, of whom there were many in his homeland, were hungry for simpler images that corresponded more closely to daily life. Dutch artists were therefore freed from the obligation to create a world of the ideal. In this sense, while remaining one of the most fascinating artists of the seventeenth century, Rembrandt was not an innovator, strictly speaking. His work is not the expression of an artist seeking to confirm his identity as the creator of a new and different world. Initially, he wished to reach the top rung of a social ladder upon which his contemporaries conferred a great deal of importance. Clearly, he needed to gain a certain security in order to achieve a sense of personal freedom. But little by litrie he was able to abandon this preoccupation. Looking at a Rembrandt painting, we feel no need to observe a respectful distance; rather, we move closer, to understand it better; we are involved. Rembrandt had no desire to set up any ideal of beauty of the kind found in contemporary Italian painting, for example. He used his prodigious talent to further a vision which was to grow more profound as the years went by.