Rembrandt-mania at the National Gallery

Rembrandt Van Rijn, a Dutch painter of the Baroque era, is best known for his ten-foot wide guild commissions featuring notable members of Amsterdam society. He stood out among his contemporaries for his unique compositions, which worked as a whole rather than highlighting each subject. His late religious portraits, on display at the National Gallery until May 1, stand out as unique from the rest of his works. This marks the first time they have been grouped together for one exhibit.
While the goal of Renaissance art was to accurately portray subject matter in two-point perspective, the Baroque painters used this technical knowledge to stylistically break away from the Renaissance. There was great experimentation with light and surface textures, as well as emotive subject matter. Rembrandt, especially as an older artist, piled paint upon his canvases and left his brush strokes visible. This lent his paintings a gritty, textured look, oftentimes preventing the idolization of the subjects.
In his later years, from 1650 through the 1660s, Rembrandt faced a series of personal crises, including financial problems, a decline in popularity and a highly condemned illegitimate child with a mistress. Some conjecture that these hardships directed Rembrandt toward religious themes, which were uncommissioned and highly uncommon during this time of the Reformation.
The saints and apostles who fill this small collection of 17 paintings share an eerie contemplation in their eyes. Though some were portraits of contemporaries loosely disguised as religious figures, all were done from studies of the human form. His work entitled “The Apostle Simon” (1661) portrays a brute of a man, with bulging muscles and a head of long black locks. The color palette is monochromatic and a simple black border surrounds the painting. Simon was a working class apostle who communicated with the masses, and this is reflected in his appearance here. Works of older subjects show every wrinkle and every vein, but in a brushed-over, indistinct way. There is a question in the eyes, pondering the possibility of redemption.
Rembrandt’s treatment of “Christ” (1657-1661) is different from the other portraits. Christ’s skin is smooth and glowing, rather than rough and heavily textured. One of the most peaceful, solemn and haunting portraits of Christ of all time, he gazes at the viewer, seemingly knowing his coming fate. A radiant light shines out of the sleeves of his robe, and pours onto his folded hands, suggesting that his whole body emits this heavenly light beneath the tawny, brown cossack. This work demands an understanding of the human condition as well as spirituality on the part of the artist, and Rembrandt fully delivers.
Rembrandt’s late transformation can be best seen in the comparison of two self portraits: one done as a young man of 23, and the other completed at the time of his religious portraits. The first, “Self portrait” (1629), places the artist in close view, with a dark shadow covering his eyes and a warm glow on his cheek. He treats his skin with a full color gradation and realistic surface finish. His eyes suggest a youthful self-consciousness, but optimism toward his life to come. The young man in that work could know nothing of the trials of life seen in the eyes of the later self-portrait, “Self portrait as the Apostle Paul” (1661). In this work, completed eight years before his death, Rembrandt faces the front at a three-quarter angle. He raises his eyebrows, displaying the marks of time in every wrinkle. His nose has a nicked tip, as if even it has seen the hardships of life. His face is worldly and acts as a beacon to the viewer, warning against a certain fate. There is no glint of optimism or possibility in his eyes. His comparison to Paul, a flawed apostle saved by God’s grace, is noteworthy.
Many questions have arisen concerning the relationships of these paintings to one another. No one knows why exactly Rembrandt painted them, if not for commission, and no one knows if they are meant to be grouped in a series. The nature of many of the works suggests the individual integrity of each. Still, this new exhibition is welcome in that it provides an introduction to some of the artist’s lesser-known works.