Word: rembrandt
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Molten Light. Rembrandt's early popularity among his countrymen (who were to spurn the full flowering of his genius) was solidly rooted in the artistic techniques of both Italy and northern Europe. His early teacher in Leiden had studied in Italy, there learned Caravaggio's trick of sharply contrasting light and shadow, to make light itself the most dramatic element in the picture. Rembrandt's painting, Jeremiah Lamenting the Destruction of Jerusalem, done when the artist was only 24, already shows both Rembrandt's love of Biblical subjects and the virtuoso control of light that gives...
...Rembrandt also inherited a hardy tradition of Dutch portrait painting. His achievement was to take the stiff, official portrait, change it into a dramatic scene, filled with inner excitement that holds the spectator's eye even today. His first great success. The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Tulp, done when he was only 26, established him as one of the foremost painters of Amsterdam, and brought him a flood of portrait commissions from the city's wealthy burghers...
...Bible. Like many, a Dutch townsman who struck it rich, Rembrandt splurged wildly, bought up collections of armor and costumes that he could use as painting props, moved into a palatial house on the edge of Amsterdam's Jewish Quarter. His drawings and etchings spread his fame the breadth of Europe. But his years of commercial success began to wane when his masterpiece, Captain Banning Cocq's Shooting Company (known as The Night Watch before its recent cleaning revealed a late-afternoon scene), met with disapproval from patrons who found themselves lost in the parade...
...Rembrandt's answer was to become increasingly absorbed in his own art, devoting himself more and more to the Biblical scenes for which there was little market...
...portrait commissions kept dwindling as he labored for months over each painting. His heavy brushstroke and thick overpainting, plus his untidy habit of cleaning brushes on his own clothing, struck his townsmen as uncouth. At 52, Rembrandt was forced to put his house and goods up for auction...