Rembrandt and Dutch Painting of the 17th century

Baroque to Neoclassical, Week 3

Background:

The Netherlands produced a huge number of artists in the 17th century. It was the golden age of Dutch painting. It was a period of great economic development. Dutch society was many mercantile, that is to say middle class, they made their money through trade. The people who commissioned and bought paintings were the wealthy middle class. Paintings were produced for domestic settings, rather than religious purposes. Therefore the subjects tended not to be religious, and were not very big. The prevailing style in the 17th century was not really the Baroque but Realism. Paintings were close observations of everyday reality. Aforementioned there had been a proliferation of genres. Artists specialised (portraits, still life, landscapes, seascapes, townscapes, etc). Each artist would stick to their genre, i.e. Landscape painter was unlikely to paint Townscapes.

'The Laughing Cavalier' is a very dashing, swaggering portrait. Hals composes the portrait with strong diagonals and quick brush work. In these respects it's uncharacteristically Baroque. However, Hals put an extraordinary amount of detail into the clothing and appearance, particularly his wry, enigmatic smile.

Frans Hals, 'The Laughing Cavalier', 1624, The Wallace Collection, London

Still life paintings, especially those by Dutch artists, were meticulously detailed, with an high level of realism. They frequently carry a message, such as the transience of life.

Willem van Aelst, Still life with flowers, 1665

Landscapes were also a popular subject matter in the 19th century. Some carried a message, some did not. For example, below are two landscapes, the one by Hobbema is simply a landscape, whereas the Ruisdael could be interpreted as having a melancholic message, the broken branches are suggestive of this.

Meindert Hobbema, Farm in Sunlight, 1668, National Gallery of Art, Washington

Jacob van Ruisdael, Forest Scene, c. 1655, National Gallery of Art, Washington

Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669)

Rembrandt was a Protestant, from the northern Netherlands. He was a universal painter, with no specialisation. But above all painted stories from the bible, but not for churches. He didn't paint the traditional stories of the bible, but subjects that he chose himself from his owns.  

Woman Taken in Adultery is story from New Testament. The Pharisees were trying to catch Christ out, so they brought before him an adulteress. Jewish law said such a wicked person should be stoned to death. But instead of condemning her Christ said “he that is without sin among you, let him cast the first stone at her.” As well as being a religious Christian story it's a story about forgiveness and compassion. Great range of reactions responding to the message. It is not a very large painting. It's a moral lesson. In terms of style, Rembrandt uses chiaroscuro to emphasise and draw attention to the human subjects, the most illuminated figures are Christ and the penitent woman. There is also illumination on some of the surrounding faces so that their reactions are visible.

There is slight indirect connection with Caravaggio (because of the chiaroscuro). Also with Venetian painting in the warmth of the colours, (e.g. the reds and golds coming through the darkness). At the same time, the faces are very ordinary, taken from life. Another characteristic of Rembrandt is the taste for the outlandish, e.g. the man in red wears turban, showing oriental influence.

Rembrandt, Woman Taken in Adultery, 1644, National Gallery, London

Woman in Bed, depicts a woman in bed, drawing the curtain aside. What kind of picture is this in terms of genres? Very portrait-like, but you wouldn't commission a portrait painting in a state of undress. She is not a conventionally beautiful woman, but the face has humanity, definitely painted from a real person. It is a Genre painting. The human sympathy is typical of Rembrandt. Again, he uses chiaroscuro, richness of colours, and warm reds and golds. He tended to use thick paint, and often used the palette knife, rather than brushes. There is a very direct relationship between the medium and the message he's trying to express. Very earthy kind of handling, with broad brush strokes.

Rembrandt, Woman in Bed, c. 1649, National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh

Rembrandt was a little bit younger than van Dyck, Poussin and Velasquez. He was from the town of Leiden, he was trained by a fairly minor painter called Pieter Lastman. What was important about Lastman, was that he was a History Painter and had been to Italy, although Juno Discovering Jupiter with Io is unmistakably Dutch in the realism, it is inspired by Italian painting.

Pieter Lastman, Juno Discovering Jupiter with Io, 1618, National Gallery, London

Gerrit Honthorst came back from Rome to Holland and established a taste of a Caravaggesque style in the Netherlands. Rembrandt did not go to Italy but learned secondhand from those that had been and paintings that travelled to the Netherlands from Italy.

Gerrit Honthorst, Christ before the High Priest, 1619, National Gallery, London

Presentation in Temple, is a New Testament subject, here you can already see Rembrandt's interest in human emotions and reactions. Over exaggeration of drama.

Rembrandt, Presentation in Temple, 1628, Hamburg

He painted portraits of himself throughout his career. This first one is very unidealised and quite self dramatising.

Rembrandt, Self-Portrait, 1629, Munich

Painting portraits was the most secure way of earning a living in a mercantile society. Portraits could be commissioned, whereas landscapes less likely to be commissioned. During the 1630s in Amsterdam Rembrandt was very successful in painting portraits. Not just solo portraits, but group portraits too.

Anatomy Lesson of Dr Tulp, depicts a doctor surrounded by students. It was originally just going to be a group portrait, but Rembrandt decided that this was not an interesting composition, and so makes the group portrait into a scene - the doctor giving a lesson to his pupils, surrounding a corpse, and the pupils reacting the the lesson. By doing this he makes the group portrait more interesting in terms of composition. He dramatises it with use of chiaroscuro, albeit rather artificially. All the physiognomies of the students are lit, so their facial expressions can be seen. The details are sharp and precise, it is an accurate portrait of these people.

Rembrandt, Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Tulp, 1632, The Hague

This self-portrait is quite precise, he is looking quite prosperous, wearing a fashionable hat and chain. He is no longer a bohemian youth, he is now a gentleman about town.

Rembrandt, Self-Portrait, 1633, Louvre, Paris

In 1634, Rembrandt engaged in an advantageous marriage to Saskia van Uylenburgh. Saskia as Flora is a portrait of his wife dressed as the antique goddess of flowers (spring). Here he displays a very robust realism. This portrait is very un-Italian. It looks exactly what it is, an ordinary woman in fancy dress.

Rembrandt, Saskia as Flora, 1635, National Gallery, London

In the 1630s Rembrandt is closest to the Baroque style and to the work of Rubens. For example, his Blinding of Samson (1636) is a relatively baroque painting, and quite characteristic of Rubens. It has a diagonal composition, and these diagonals recede into depth. The composition leads from the bottom right foreground, and recedes into the top left. This is very comparable to Rubens' Samson and Delilah, but Rubens painting is more homely, Rembrandt's Samson is no beauty. He is an artist who is not afraid of ugliness.

Rembrandt, Blinding of Samson, 1636, Frankfurt

Rubens, Samson and Delilah, 1609-10, National Gallery, London

The Night Watch, is comparable to the Dr Tulp painting, it's a group painting of a militia. A group of gentlemen/part-time soldiers are processing with the militia behind them. Pikes, and muskets at the ready. There is a sense of movement, it is dramatic in the sense that it is moving forwards, and the contrasts of light and dark. But it does not display the kind of melodramatic scenes such as in the Samson painting. It is still composed of diagonals but it also has a stabilising grid of verticals and horizontals. Faces are lit, illuminating lots of facial expressions. Richly glowing colours.

Rembrandt, The Night Watch, 1642, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

In his portrait of Jan Six, Rembrandt is focusing on the expression of the features. The expression is suggestive of some sort of inner thought, in this case perhaps melancholy. This piece is very different from Frans Hals The Laughing Cavalier, which is spontaneous, whereas this is sad and thoughtful. The figure emerges from darkness, draped in a richness of reds and golds. The brush strokes are becoming broader, more slabs of colour that painted worked with a brush.

Rembrandt, Jan Six, 1654

Syndics of the Drapers’ Guild, was painted in the last decade of his life. It depicts the governors of the Drapers' Guild. Wealthy middle class men, very different in style to the Dr Tulp portraits, this piece is much quieter with less drama. It still has contrasts of light and shadow but the contrasts are not as harsh.

Rembrandt, Syndics of the Drapers' Guild, 1662, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

'The Jewish Bride', (the nickname for this painting), implies that this is a portrait of a married Jewish couple. But may be a pair of characters from the Old Testament. The couple seem to be in a loving relationship. It has sexual connotations as the man has his hand upon the woman's breast, but he looks at his wife in a tender and protective way.

Rembrandt, 'The Jewish Bride', c. 1666, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

His Self Portrait (1659), was painted 10 years before death. He shows himself as a painter, with no self flattery. He paints a wry expression, with none of the smoothness of Caravaggio’s style. He has used vibrant chiaroscuro, creating a thick air.

Rembrandt, Self-Portrait, c. 1659, Kenwood House Collection, London

The Self Portrait of 1669, is introspective. The darkness behind him, gives his form a warm vibrancy. A sense of veiled mysteriousness can be seen in the late portraits that are very expressive of the spirit of his personality.

Rembrandt, Self-Portrait, c. 1669, National Gallery, London

Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665)

- In the 16th century French art was pretty minor. France wasn't nearly as important as it was to come in the 18/19th centuries.

- Neither Poussin, nor Claude Lorrain spent their careers in Paris, but in Rome. Poussin, especially, set the tone for art in France.

- Although he was working in Rome he was not particularly influenced by Baroque. He is a Classical painter. Bernini makes sculpture look like painting, whereas Poussin does the opposite, trying to make painting like sculpture. He uses clear lines, and is interested in stability rather than movement.

In Poussin's Bacchanalian Revel before a Term of Pan, the God Pan, (the god of fertility, also meaning lust), is portrayed with horns and garlands around him. The Bacchanal figures are dancing in honour of him. This is a subject from classical antiquity. The composition based on gentle diagonals, but not dynamic diagonals - the effect of movement is frozen. The figures are sculpturally formed, which also invokes classical antiquity, as does the composition as the figures are proceeding in a sort of frieze, in a narrow, shallow space. The painting is evenly lit, with a light colour range. It has a sensual theme in a way, but nit is not executed in a very sexy way, it is intellectualised.

Poussin, Bacchanalian Revel before a Term of Pan, 1636-7, National Gallery, London

Poussin was in Rome, absorbing local art, for about ten years. His work is not like Caravaggio, not particularly like Bernini, quite like Raphael’s sculptural works but most like Annibale Carracci. Especially Annibale's ceiling in the Palazzo Farnese. This piece by Poussin is an incorporation of Titan and Raphael, a dance, influenced by the composition of Classical sarcophagi, this influence is heightened by the sculpturally painted forms. Although operating at the same time, his work is not particularly like Pietro da Cortona, triumph of Bacchus, which exemplifies the Baroque in its richness and sensuousness. The foliage is lush, and there is less emphasis on frieze like composition. Cortona uses diagonal that recede into depth, which is not something that Poussin employs, instead favouring a shallow space. Poussin was not painting in the fashionable Baroque style of the time.

Annibale Carracci, Farnese Ceiling, 1608

Pietro da Cortona, Triumph of Bacchus, c. 1626-9

Originally from Normandy, Poussin arrived in Rome in the mid-1620s, he had some difficulty gaining commissions at first. Parnassus, is a piece with an antique theme, Apollo surrounded by muses and poets. This is the same subject as one of Raphael Vatican apartment paintings, The Parnassus. Poussin has clearly been influenced by Raphael. He has even left a gap in the composition, which, in the case of Raphael, was filled by a window. Poussin's is very obviously a homage to Raphael, especially seen in Poussin's interest in compositional clarity, light colours, even lighting, and idealised figures.

Poussin, Parnassus, c. 1626, Prado, Madrid

Raphael, The Parnassus, 1509, Vatican Apartments, Vatican City

Poussin's Death of Germanicus, is a painting depicting the perfect example of virtue. It shows the death of great Roman general, poisoned by emperor, he dies a noble death. This tragic painting presents a moral lesson in stoic heroism, especially seen in the dignity of the mourning soldiers. All of the bodies are modelled on Classical statuary, providing universal standard of virtue and form. The composition, with its shallow spatial arrangement, is based on Roman sarcophagi reliefs. Poussin was presented by art literature of the time as the new Raphael. Raphael is THE great classical painter, Annibale Carracci was the named the new Raphael, as was Poussin.

Poussin, Death of Germanicus, 1626-8

Poussin didn't work on a large scale paintings, he tried to compromise with the Baroque style at the beginning of his career to try to attract commissioners. This is evident in his Apparition of the Virgin to St. James. Especially in the dramatic treatment of this event. The composition of the event is shown on a curving diagonal, with varying light and shade, and quite intense colour. This painting is quite like Annibale Carracci’s Assumption of the Virgin altarpiece. Following this painting, he was commissioned to paint an altarpiece for St. Peter's.

Poussin, Apparition of the Virgin to St. James, 1629-30, Louvre, Paris

Martyrdom of St. Erasmus is the piece he painted for the Vatican. It is very rich colour. But it was not very successful, for the taste of most cardinals, this piece was not Baroque enough. Poussin was uncomfortable working on such a large scale. By early 1630s he gave up these large paintings and started creating smaller, more intellectual paintings.

Poussin, Martyrdom of St. Erasmus, 1628, Vatican, Vatican City

Intellectual paintings such as Inspiration of the Poet. This painting depicts no particular poet, being inspired by Apollo, with a putti bringing a crown of laurel to poet. It is quite a lyrical and evocative piece. Possibly influenced by Titian. There is a sense of more dappled light playing over the objects, it is a softer, and more lyrical work than he was to produce later on.

Poussin, Inspiration of the Poet, c. 1630, Louvre, Paris

Poussin becomes increasingly and self-consciously Classical in his style. This is event in his Arcadian Shepherds, it's not a story from classical antiquity but shows idealised figures from an ancient world. Virgil imagines land of 'Arcadia', he imagines it as a sort of lovely, never-never land of pastures and fields, this painting is a sort of nostalgia for Arcadia as a lost world. These shepherds are tracing the inscriptions of a tomb, even in this paradise of Arcadia, you can't escape death. The inscription translates, "I'm in Arcadia too" (that is to say death). There is no movement, no drama, and muted colours, sensuous forms, and drapery looks like coloured sculptural forms, Poussin is trying to insist on antique sculpture.

Poussin, Arcadian Shepherds, c. 1640, Louvre, Paris

Around this time, Poussin was invited home to France, he had made quite a reputation in Rome, and some paintings had travelled back to France. He was a slow worker, very meticulous, and didn't like working with assistants. France wanted propaganda art but Poussin was not interested. However before moving back to Rome he did acquire some new French commissioners, so his time at home wasn't a complete waste of time.

Poussin was Catholic but had no interest in Catholic propaganda. He painted a series of 7 sacrament paintings. The Sacrament of Eucharist, shows the subject of the last supper, in a very calm and archaeological kind of way. The figures are reclining on sofas, which is how the ancient romans ate their supper. The painting is set in an ancient roman interior, with severe Doric columns, the verticals and horizontals are very rigid. This painting is very un-Baroque. Poussin is trying to make it historically accurate in terms of Classical interior, clothing, behaviour, etc. It is very sober and restrained. Completely without the melodramatic reactions associated with the Baroque.

Poussin, Sacrament of Eucharist, 1644-8, National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh

The Sacrament of Marriage is set in a Roman house from the first century AD, full of exact Roman costume, each element has been given sculptural treatment.

Poussin, Sacrament of Marriage, 1644-8, National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh

The first Christian priest was Peter, this painting depicts Jesus giving Peter the keys of heaven. There is a townscape behind, full of Classical buildings as a result of Poussin's close archaeological study. The buildings create a strong grid of verticals and horizontals that frame the figures. Poussin uses simple cubic shapes, and is interested in using these simple shapes to create a sense of clarity and order. Following this painting, he carries on refining his style and recounting serious subjects

Poussin, Sacrament of Ordination, 1644-8, National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh

The Testament of Eudamidas, is a subject from ancient history. Eudamidas was poet from Corinth, he was very poor but had two very good friends and when he prematurely died, he left in his will, to his two friends, his elderly mother and his wife. They took the dead man's wishes seriously and honoured them as a mark of their deep friendship. They looked after his bereaved relatives and all the financial restrictions that came with the task. The painting is set in stark surroundings and the treatment is very Classical.

Poussin, Testament of Eudamidas, c. 1655, Copenhagen

Poussin became an important representative of Classical landscape. The painting Landscape with Matthew and the Angel is not purely landscape, the has foreground figures to set the tone of the landscape behind. In this case a religious subject, Matthew being inspired by the angel to write the gospel. The landscape is clearly idealised.

Poussin, Landscape with Matthew and the Angel, c. 1645, Berlin

In a similar way, Landscape with Orpheus and Eurydice, is a landscape with mythological subjects in the foreground. There are Classical buildings in background that set the tone of the painting. It is severely composed, with strong verticals and horizontals and landscape that recedes logically, step by step in an orderly progression into the background.

Poussin, Landscape with Orpheus and Euridice, c. 1645

Poussin painted almost no portraits, however he painted a self portrait in 1649, that he was asked to do by his friend and patron, Paul Fréart de Chantelou. He establishes a geometric framework by painting framed pictures in the background. He does not present himself as extrovert or stylish or introspective, but very sober, hardworking, scholarly.

Claude Lorrain (1600-1682)

Claude's largest and most ambitious landscape is the Landscape with Apollo and the Muses. Its classical theme is immediately suggested by the prominent reclining river god and the temple on the hill. In the middle ground of the painting, framed by tress the god Apollo is surrounded by the 9 muses. Claude's landscapes are softer and much less severe than Poussin's, there is a soft glow to them. But similarly, they proceed very logically. The tree on the right hand side establishes a marker for the recession of the forms into the depth. It becomes misty and romantic in background. Claude was a master in evoking a nostalgic mood.

Claude Lorrain, Landscape with Apollo and the Muses, 1652, National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh

From the story in Ovid's 'Metamorphoses' the Landscape with Narcissus and Echo, is a soft, more poetic landscape, this is heightened by the effect of the sunrise/sunset. Something that Poussin doesn't really experiment with, Poussin was more interested in the intellectual, whereas Claude is more poetic.

Claude Lorrain, Narcissus and Echo, 1644, National Gallery, London

Aeneas at Delos, is again a clearly classical painting. He depicts antique temples, which are of course an evocation of the antique. The evocation of dawn light, is typical of Claude Lorrain.

There are more Claude Lorrain paintings in England than anywhere else, he was adored here. His classical landscapes inspired many places in England, e.g. Stowe Gardens show Claude's impact on 18th century England.

Claude Lorrain, Aeneas at Delos, 1672, National Gallery, London

The Temple of Ancient Virtue, Stowe, Buckinghamshire