Rembrandt and the Face of Jesus
Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669), a grandmaster of painting and the greatest printmaker in the history of the medium, is now well established in the pantheon of art geniuses.
By 1641, he was already recognized as "one of the most famous painters of our age."
Signing works only as "Rembrandt," his name is synonymous with Holland's "Golden Age."
Constantly defying convention amidst personal troubles, Rembrandt is an artist for our times, too.
His life was a train wreck, well suited for celebrity gossip on TMZ.
By 36 -- at the height of his career -- the artist lost his wife from tuberculosis, soon after giving birth to their fourth child.
The painter was then left with an infant son (three previous children didn't live past infancy).
He subsequently had a drawn out affair with the baby's wet nurse, who sued him for support; Rembrandt had her committed to an asylum.
The artist had another relationship with a housekeeper, fathering an illegitimate daughter.
Meanwhile, Rembrandt was forced to sell his possessions, including an extensive collection of Italian, Flemish, German and Dutch art, to satisfy creditors.
The artist had also stopped paying his mortgage. With mounting debts, he ultimately declared bankruptcy and lost his home (now the Rembrandt House Museum) in Amsterdam, where he had lived and worked from 1639 to 1658.
Through all this turmoil, it is remarkable that Rembrandt was able to concentrate on painting, drawing and printmaking to achieve his acclaimed place in art history.
"Rembrandt and the Face of Jesus" is a landmark traveling exhibition organized by the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Louvre Museum in Paris and the Detroit Institute of Arts.
Timothy Rub, director of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, recently stated: "Rembrandt exhibits are few and far between. It is a wonderful event for us. It marks the first time that a substantial group of paintings by Rembrandt are seen in Philadelphia."
Indeed, this is the first show since 1932 to bring Rembrandt to Philadelphia and, rather surprisingly, the first time the Philadelphia Museum of Art has collaborated with the Musee du Louvre.
This is its initial American showing and the only East Coast venue where the exhibit will be on view until Oct. 30.
Installed in the Dorrance Galleries of the museum's main building, the exhibition is grand in concept but not in size.
It focuses on an innovative shift in the representation of Christ by Rembrandt, whose prolific career knew few boundaries. There are fewer than 50 works -- paintings, drawings and prints -- on display and most date from the 1640s and 1650s.
Without the theatrical hype of a typical blockbuster, this is the kind of viewing experience that requires close looking and contemplation to appreciate Rembrandt's application of paint and subtle use of lighting. In addition, these religious pictures are scaled for intimate domestic interiors; they aren't large altar pieces.
So what did Jesus look like?
Well, in Rembrandt's day, artists portrayed Christ based on officially approved sources, which included two holy relics that were considered miraculous "true" images of Jesus not made by human hands: the face on Veronica's Veil and the Mandylion (a napkin that Christ was believed to have pressed to his face).
A third reference used by artists was the Lentulus Letter believed to have been written by someone named Lentulus, a governor of Judea before Pontius Pilate. In this questionable eyewitness account, he described Jesus as ". . . a man of medium size" with hair "the color of ripe hazelnut."
The exhibit is introduced by Rembrandt's "Christ and the Woman Taken in Adultery," painted in 1644 and on loan from The National Gallery in London.
Jesus with light brown hair and fair complexion is based on the formulaic approach for representing Christ.
Rembrandt emphasizes compassion, as Jesus gazes down at the brightly illuminated woman kneeling before him. The figures seem almost dwarfed by the magnificent scale of the elaborate architecture. In its day, this panel painting was well admired, realizing a hefty sale price.
"Portrait of a Young Jew" is a small painting dating from about four years later; the unidentified model wears a traditional skull cap to reveal his faith.
The painterly surface with its visible brushstrokes achieves a sculptural quality to build up the forehead and nose. The subject is seen close-up, suggesting a comfortable bond between artist and young man.
Rembrandt undoubtedly used models from his neighborhood in the heart of Amsterdam's Jewish quarter.
Most significantly, the show brings together for the first time a series of six oil sketches (from an original group of 8 that were inventoried in the summer of 1656 before the auction of the artist's studio contents).
These panels representing Jesus demonstrate a deliberate effort by Rembrandt to portray a more natural and credible representation of Christ. Each head drawn from life and believed to be a Jewish model is illuminated against a dark, unidentified background.
In 1648, in "The Supper at Emmaus," Rembrandt portrays a less idealized image of Christ. It may be one of the first times that Jesus appears convincingly Jewish to indicate how Rembrandt was working within the interfaith context of 17th-century Amsterdam to depict Christ with greater authenticity.
"The Supper at Emmaus" was the artist's favorite Bible story, dealing with an incident between the Resurrection and Ascension when Christ appeared to his disciples while on the road to Emmaus.
Rather than rely solely on its own substantial collection of paintings from 17th-century Holland, the Philadelphia Museum of Art put extraordinary effort into this exhibition to include loans of exceptionally rare works.
"Rembrandt and the Face of Jesus" is illuminating and informative, focusing on one of the great personalities in the history of art. This show is truly a Dutch treat.
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