The World of Rembrandt [antikvár]

An Autobiography without WordsNo artist has left a loftier or more penetrating personal testament than Rembrandt van Rijn. In more than 90 portraits of himself that date from the outset of his career in the 1620s to the year of his death in 1669, he created an autobiography in art that is the equal of the finest ever produced in literatureeven of the intimately analytical Confessions of St. Augustine.As a young man Rembrandt probably had no thought of addressing himself to future centuries through his self-portraits. Often, like an actor practicing before a mirror, he sought simply to increase his mastery of facial expressionas seen in the greatly enlarged etching opposite, in which he registered horror or alarm. (The etching is reproduced in its actual size on the following page.) However, as Rembrandt aged and experienced the reality of emotion instead of merely studying its surface signs, he used his face to convey a deeper meaning, pitilessly portraying the slow ruin of his own flesh,* reflecting 'the tides of skepticism and courage, melancholy and calm that coursed through him. In so doing he captured the universal, describing not only his pilgrimage but also that of all humanity toward a final peace with this world and with God.