Rembrandt: Portrait of a man 9788070357521

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Contents

Forewords

Kees J.R. Klompenhouwer

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Ma rcus Dekiert Marius Winzeler Essays

Inside Rembrandt. 1606-1669

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A Drama of the Mind in Five Acts, with a Prologue and Epilogue

Anja K. Sevcik Rembrandt and the Convention of the Scholar in Dutch Genre Painting

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Laura E. Th iel-Convery a Wayne Fra n its The History of Prague's Rembrandt

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Lucie Nem eckova Rembrandt's Graphic Art

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Blanka Kubtkova

Catalogue

Prologue:

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The Republic of Knowledge Act I:

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Early career: Leiden, Light, and Lievens Act II:

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Talent with a Goal: Old Faces - Tronie - Orient Act Ill:

158

Rembrandt and Amsterdam anno 1634 Act IV:

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Rembrandt's Studio and Appeal ActV:

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The Late Rembrandt: Drama, Comedy, and Tragedy

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Epilogue Bibliography

After Rembrandt

309 320

In iilentiu1n.

Anja K. Sevcik

Inside Rembrandt 1606-1669 A Drama of the Mind in Five Acts, with a P,rologue and Epilogue

"All [of Rembrandt's faces] seem to hold an extremely weighty, dense drama within themselves." Jean Genet, Rembrand's Secret, 1958 1

Fig. l Andrea Alciato Emblemata, Lyon 1550 S.17

Even 350 years since his death on 4 October 1669 in Amsterdam, Remb randt Harmensz. van Rijn does not cease to occupy the minds of scholars and laymen. A controversial, self-willed icon in his lifetime, he remains a fascinating figure for people worldwide and across all cultures to this day. Miraculum aetatis - the miracle of our age - that is how Gabriel Bucelinus described the extraordinary artist Rembrandt van Rijn around 1664.2 His 45-year- long career between 1624 and 1669 took shape amidst the no less exceptional economic and cultural rise of the Dutch Republic. Despite fierce conflicts of faith, war, epidemic and economic crises, art flourished . Highly ambitious, capable, and w ith an unflagging dedication, this was the setting w here Rembrandt would unfold his unique and novel visual language - in competition with the greatest masters of the past, in creative exchange with his peers and with an enormous influence that has persisted through the centuries .

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Quoted in Genet 1996, p. 19. Cf. Schillemans 1987. On the function and interpretation of Rembrandt's self-portraits in this respect, cf. Van de Wetering in Corpus IV (2005), pp. 89-317 and Van de Wetering 2016, pp. 298-302.

Nevertheless, Rembrandt's life was not spared persona l misfortune and fai lure: the untimely death of his chi ldren and wife Saskia, legal disputes with his famil y and creditors, debt and insolvency. Handed dow n in a confusing medley of fact and fiction, Rembrandt's life story has never lacked the power to inspire empathy in his audiences. He fired these sentiments like no other artist w ith strateg ic flair through numerous self-portraits. Draw n, etched or painted in oil, Rembrandt produced roughl y 80 se lf-portraits during his career, comprising about ten percent of his oeu vre. However, only few of these artworks match the traditional conception of a representati ve self- portrait, or a sort of seventeenth-century "selfie". Spurred by a lack of written testimonies, autobiographical and psychological interpretations of these portraits have abounded . Yet at his beginnings Rembrandt's experiments w ith role - play and mirror imagery mainl y served his search for new forms of depiction , w ith self-portraiture offering all the liberties and daily opportunities for the arti st 's creative furore. A deft self-promotor, he qu ickly realised the potential self-portraits held on the art market. Their profusion and popularity allowed Rembrandt to become a proper 'icon', often cited by other artists (Cat. 21 , 103). Rembra ndt's self-portraits enjoyed commercial success until late in his life: neither his debtor's inventory from 1656 nor the estate record issued after his death explicitly mention a single self-portrait remaining in Rembrandt's property.3

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Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn - studio Portrait of Johannes Cornelisz. Sylvius (detail), 1644 Oil on canvas, 127.7 x 104.5 cm Cologne, Wallraf-Richartz-Museum & Fondation Corboud inv. no. WRM 2527 Cat. 97

Highs and lows also characterised Rembrandt's afterlife, as his esteem wa xed and waned with the centuries.4 And to this very day, Rembrandt poses riddles to the art market and scholars alike, further contributing to his legend. New discoveries, attributions claimed and revoked are hotly discussed by everyone down to the popular press and are always in flux. To provide just one illustration : beginning w.ith 588 oil paintings recognised as Rembrandt's in the first list of his work catalogued by John Smith in 1836, the number climbed to a high point of 714 with Wi lhelm Valentiner in 1923. The scientific team of the Rembrandt Research Project, active since 1968, totalled his Corpus at 265 paintings. In the final , sixth volume of the Corpus of Rembrandt's paintings published in 2015, Ernst van de Wetering listed 324 originals, including individual discoveries and several re-attributions. The most recent catalogue of the Complete Paintings from 2019 recognises 329 works.5 Similar fluctuations in authorship accompany the tally of Rembrandt's drawings. And Rembrandt's experimental attitude even poses a certain challenge to the connoisseurs of etchings, as Rembrandt would often re-work and print his compositions in various stages, while the issue is complicated even further by an abundance of copies and reprints (Cat. 28). 6 Questions of attribution are not an entirely new issue in the field. Even Rembrandt's contemporaries had demonstrable difficulties distinguishing between the work of the young master and his colleague Jan Lievens, due to intense and close collaboration between the two. Tellingly, Alexander Le Clercq 's inventory of the property of Prince Frederik Hendrik from 1632 records a painting titled Simeon in the Temple and supplements the note "painted by Rembrandt or Jan Lievens''.7 The same is the case with an entry in the inventory of the English king Charles I from 1639.8 The portrait of a Young Student by the Peat Fire is here interpreted as Rembrandt's, w hereas it is attributed to Jan Lievens by the well-informed Jan Orlers in his Chronicle of Leiden.9

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Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn - studio Self-Portrait in a Red Cap (detail), ea. 1659 Oil on canvas, 68 x 56.5 cm Stuttgart, Staatsgalerie inv. no. 2614 Cat. 115

A similar problem besets the entirety of Rembrandt's oeuv re when attempting to differentiate between his authentic paintings and works produced by his pupil s or assistants.10 Within an extensive studio operated in the 1640s, he would commonl y delegate commissions and sell works made by his assistants, some of w hich are even inscribed w ith his signature (cf. Cat. 97, 101).11 4 5

Cf. Slive 1953. Manuth, de Winkel, Van Leeuwen 2019, published after the editorial deadline of this catalogue. Texts therein related to the exhibited artworks could not be incorporated into this catalogue. Cf. the instructive account of the varying total of Rembrandt's paintings in catalogues raisonnes between 1836 and 1992 by Schwartz 2006, pp. 14- 15. 6 On Rembrandt's graphic art, see recently Hinterding, Schatbom 2019 and Cat. Koln 2019, and the catalogue essay by Blanka Kubikova, pp. 61-71. 7 Cf. Drossaers, Lunsingh Scheurleer 1974/76, I, p.186. 8 RemDoc 1639/11. 9 Orlers 1641, p. 377. 10 For an early example of the problem to differentiate the painters' hands, cf. the composition Prince Rupert and His Tutor as Samuel and Eli, 1631, Los Angeles, J . Paul Getty Museum, currently considered a studio painting. Van de Wetering proposed that the painting, begun by Rembrandt, was actually completed by Gerrit Dou, cf. Cat. Kassel/Amsterdam 2001/02, No. 78.

11 In his study oc. the valuation of authenticity in the 17th century, Van der Veen (Corpus N, 2005, p. 27) suggests that students such as Carel Fabritius also used Rembrandt's signature. 12 Constantijn Huygens, diary entry from ea. 1629, quoted in Cat. Kassel/ Amsterdam 2002, p. 396. 13 Cf. entries on Cat. 46 (Adam Pokorny), 97 (Caroline von Saint-George), and 118 (Iris Schaefer). 14 On the need to explain this, cf. Van de Wetering in Corpus N (2005), p. 83: "The reasons why it appears immediately obvious to many who are familiar with Rembrandt's oeuvre that the Stuttgart painting cannot possibly be by Rembrandt need, however, to be set out explicitly. This is all the more necessary since it became evident during the 1999/2000 exhibition Rembrandt by Himself that uninitiated viewers considered this painting to be one of the most impressive of Rembrandt's self-portraits."

What would have been of the m yth called 'Rembrandt', one has to wonder, had the artist fulfilled the pious wishes of his early discoverer and patron Constantijn Huygens and kept an accurate record? "What I asked of Rubens was something I had· wanted to see done by them [Rembrandt and Jan Lievens] in particular, namely to create a complete book of their paintings, a painting of their paintings as it were, w here each would humbly present their art and, for the wonderment of posterity, indicate the plan and judgement in w hich they thought each had concei ved, ordered, and created their w ork." 12 Many of the artworks displayed at our exhibition bear witness to the back and forth of historical attributions and persisting doubts. Despite considerable progress made in scientific analytic methods, featuring for example in-focus contributions on the technique and condition of individual artworks in the catalogue,13 the works' state of preservation sometimes bars a clear-cut answer to the question: Rembrandt, Rembrandt and his studio, Rembrandt with later overpainting, or Rembrandt's circle? Interestingly, the general reception and visual potency of a painting is not always consistent with scholarly classification as an authentic Rembrandt. The best examples of this are offered by the Stuttgart Self-Portrait (Cat. 115) and the Cologne Johannes Cornelisz. Sylvius (Cat. 97). Both are currently attributed to Rembrandt's workshop. Nonetheless, they seem to have captivated the art-lov ing public even more than some of Rembrandt's authentic paintings.14

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Besides a search for the real Rembrandt, many were also occupied by the more subjective question of the typical Rembrandt. Few artists have been able to turn their names into adjectives evoking definite associations. Like Franz Kafka and the catchphrase "Kafkaesque", Rembrandt's name became an epithet of artistic style, but ultimately also a cliche: the term "Rembrandtesque" often conjures up such ideas as chiaroscuro, brown tone and pastose, energetic brushwork, and it is sometimes even employed in fields outside art proper.15 Attention has generally focused on Rembrandt's late work. Artworks from the early days of his career were less known and for a long time also less sought-after on the art market. One chapter from the history of the National Gallery Prague's Scholar, painted in 1634 (Cat. 46), serves as an apt illustration of this. On 16 May 1911 , while New York's famed art collector Henry Clay Frick was on a hunt for a Rembrandt, British art advisor Roger E. Fry w rote him the following lines:

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By the by, the picture of a Rabbi by Rembrandt Book No 198 in the possession of Graf Nostitz of Prague is for sale. [... ] If you wish it, I know that I can get it direct for about £70 thousand . It is a very important example of that period, but personally I should not advise yo ur buying it at such a figure since, as yo u know, I do not think these early wo rks nearl y so characteristic or imaginative as the later ones.16 Frick desisted, and although numerous potential buyers turned up between 1910 and 1918, some offering as high as 2.5 million Crowns, the painting remained property of the Nostitz famil y and in 1945 passed into the co llections of Prague's National Gallery.17 It is no coincidence that this relatively unknown painting, having only seen one presentation outside Bohemia in 1956, forms the centre of our exhibition. Rembrandt created this monumental work in Amsterdam, during his private and professional peak year of 1634. It represents the culmination of his early art and career. The Scholar appears to combine Rembrandt's qualities as wel l as his preferences: a portrait and a historical painting amalgamated in a sumptuous, picturesque and t imeless historical image of the human mind. This key work also combines the achievements of Leiden with the ambitions of Amsterdam. The tradition-steeped and popular theme of a scholar18 as well as Rembrandt's interpretation of it as an orientalised, expressive tronie (face, head) are direct extensions of his work from Leiden. Yet here we see Rembrandt display his bravura in majestic large format. He carefully populates the scene with various fabrics and accessories. The arrangement of books, globes and writing implements on the table prove him to be a talented still-life painter.19 Being the skillful dramaturge he is, Rembrandt stages his model - an expressive 'actor', to be sure - in a pregnant moment. He captures the instant when we, the viewers, pull the old scho lar from the world of his mind, thereby cleverly making us part of the scene. It may we ll be that Rembrandt here creatively emulated an older iconographic paradigm, the v isual tradition of the silent philosopher exemplified by the emblem "In Silentium" (In Silence) from Andrea Alciato's Emblemata (Fig. 1). 20 The pictura in the earliest fully illustrated editions, published since 1548 by Guillaume Rouille in Lyon, shows a man studying in a similar position by the table as Rembrandt's Scholar, with his finger on his lips gesturing silence. The subcriptio associates si len ce w ith wisdom, in contrast to clamorous foolishness. Rembrandt already treated the motif of silence in 1627 on his St Paul in Prison (Fig. 6 , p. 38). The fingers grasping the chin on the Prague Scholar are yet another variation. 21 It comes as no surprise that the impressive Scholar has inspired numerous attempts at identification .22 Incidentally, that is w hat the painting shares w ith the oft-interpreted Cologne Self-Portrait as Zeuxis (Cat. 118). Could this renunciation of an iconographic fixation , the interpretative openness 23 characteris ing many of Rembrandt's works allowing them to appeal to each century and each viewer individual ly - could this be precisely part of the mystery? The remarkable expressiveness of Rembrandt's art is also revealed in the frequent use of his etched tronies by copyists throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth ce nturies as supposedly authentic portraits of historical philosophers, such as Heraclitus (cf. Cat. 7), Philo Judaeus (Cat. 32), Dr Faustus (Cat. 1), or Plato and Marcus Agrippa (Cat. 51). It seems Rembrandt's anonymous heads congenially embodied the idea of a philosopher and were used for their emotion al appeal: "Rembrandt's works were charged with meaning and emotion ". 24The same held true

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15 Cf. https://www.parool.nl/columnsopinie/wanneer-is-dat-eigenlijkbegonnen-voetbal-enpoezie, article by Gijs Groenteman from 21 May 2017 on Willem Visser's comment about the match between Olympique Lyon and Ajax Amsterdam, who played "almost Rembrandtesque football". 16 From a letter at the Frick Art Reference Library, Henry Clay Frick Papers, Series Correspondence, TFC/FARL Archives, thanks to a kind note by Esmee Quodbach; cf. Cat. New York 2011, p. 19, fn . 47. 17 Cf. correspondence on this painting in Archiv SOA Plzen, Fonds RA NostitzRieneck Falknov, inv. no. 485, Box 86; on the "Causa Rembrandt", see Patek 2004, Ch. 3.2.2. For a detailed history of the painting, cf. the catalogue essay by Lucie Nemeckova pp. 47-58. 18 On this, see the catalogue essay by Laura Thiel-Convery and Wayne Franits, pp. 33-45. 19 Rembrandt never devoted significant attention to the genre of still life, with the exception, in the broadest sense, of three animal paintings: Hunter with a Bittern (Dresden, Gemiildegalerie) and Girl with a Dead Peacock (Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum) from 1639, as well as the Slaughtered Ox (Paris, Musee du Louvre) from 1655. Surprisingly the 1656 inventory records altogether five Vanitas paintings ('Stillegent !even') retouched by Rembrandt (RemDoc 1656/12, Nr. 25, 27, 28, 120, 123). 20 On the history of this visual tradition, cf. Langedijk 1964. 21 Cf. the finger gesture on Jan Harmensz. Muller's copperplate of Harpocrates, the God of Silence from 1593, quoted by Jan Lievens in his Philosopher from 1624/25 in San Francisco, Palace of the Legion of Honor; cf. Schnackenburg 2007, pp. 191-192, and a variation in the form of a thoughtful gesture in Cat. 43.

Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn Old Man with a Beard, Fur Cap, and Velvet Cloak (detail), ea. 1632 Etching, 149 x 130 mm Stuttgart, Staatsgalerie, Graphische Sammlung inv. no. A 11027 Cat. 51

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---~-::::: --~ for the visi bly spiritual register that allowed the Old Scholar in a Vaulted Room from Stockholm to become in hindsight a portrait of St Athanasius (Cat. 15), and the Student at a Table by Candlelight to be identified as the wise Hermes Trismegistus (Cat. 19). The extraordinary emotional power of Rembrandt's wo rk and his images of human figures in particular up to modern times speaks from many vivid personal testimonies about his paintings (cf. Cat. 118), beginning with Constantijn Huygens' diary entry from roughly 1629 about Rembrandt's Judas (cf. Cat. 12). No artist before had managed, as the young Rembrandt does here, to "encompass different emotions in one single figure": the betrayer of Christ, raging , begging for forgiveness, wringing his hands. In a letter sent to Huygens ten years later, Rembrandt himself wrote he always strove for the greatest and most natural beweeglijkheid - which translates as both a life-like illusion of painted movement and as the capacity to move and seize the viewer. 25 Czech writer Karel Capek expressed this saliently in his Letters from Holland:

22 On this, cf. the catalogue essay by Lucie Nemei'kova, pp. 47-58. 23 Cf. Busch's formulation about Rembrandt's palette, 2009a, p. 133, "Houding beliisst das Gezeigte im Schwebezustand." 24 Cf. Milnz 1939/ 40, esp. p. 122. 25 On the interpretation and Rembrandt's application of the term, cf. Roodenburg 2010a. 26 Quoted in Capek 1981, pp. 271, 274, 275.

Only Rembrandt, this terrible and tragic man, faces us wrapped in the crumpled black cloak of twilight. [... ] Good people from all over the world flocked devoutly in front of his paintings spun of dark and sparkle; but these paintings remained inscrutable [... ] the mystery of a great artist[ ... ] an abyss of sorrow, radiance, and terrifying beauty. 26 What is it that makes Rembrandt's art so provoking, mysterious, and touching? With "Inside Rembrandt," I venture a - by no means exhaustive - answer to this question.

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Remb randt Harmensz. van Rijn A Scholar in His Study (deta il), 1634 O il on canvas, 141 x 135 cm, National Gallery Prague inv. no. DO 4288 Cat. 46

The drama that is deeply rooted in Rembrandt's life and art, and always emphasised by beholders, inspired us to structure this exhibition into the five acts of a Baroque theatre play, with a prologue and epilogue. Rembrandt's artworks from Cologne and Prague perform together with numerous loans from international museums and private collections. Set in a mutuall y elucidating context, this selection aims to highlight certain aspects about the origin, intention, and force of Rembrandt's art while shedding light on less familiar facets of his work. Rembrandt himself takes centre stage, though not in the manner of a monologue. He leads a di alogue with the supporting cast of his contemporaries, namely Jan Lievens, Rembrandt's formative early friend . Further exhibits present Rembrandt's reception by his students and assistants, whom it would be equally unjust to call mere extras. The first-rate artwork of these apprentices grappling with their master's legacy was instrumental in the tradition and dissemination of Rembrandt's thematic world and style. Finally, the epilogue illustrates Rembrandt's resonance within modern art, featuring several paintings by contemporary Czech artists whom the Prague Scholar served as an inspiration. 27 In the texts of this exhibition catalogue - behind the scenes, so to speak - readers can discover the role models which Rembrandt measured himself against and which he sought to surpass: the "Old Masters" of the Renaissance, such as Albrecht Durer, but equally his contemporary Flemish star painter Peter Paul Rubens, whom he emulated and whose artwork he collected. 28 The arc of the exhibition's libretto runs in chronological order, lluminating of course only a small, fragmentary snippet of the master's oeuv re. In the climactic Act Ill , the Prague Scholar takes the spotlight. Ring up the curtain!

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Prologue: The Republic of Knowledge Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn A Scholar in His Study (detail), 1634 O il on canvas, 141 x 135 cm , National Gallery Prague inv. no. DO 4288 Cat. 46

27 On this, cf. the catalogue essay by Lucie Nemeckova pp. 47-58. 28 For one of the earliest examples in Rembrandt's art where he engages in 'figurative competition' with Rubens, cf. The Rape of Proserpina, ea. 1631 (Berlin, Gemaldegalerie), Grahe 1996, pp. 55-59. J. Douglas Stewart 2004, pp. 196-199 already recognises Rubens' influence in Rembrandt's early etching The Circumcision (Cat. 10 ), mediated by a drawing Jan Lievens possibly made after Rubens, The Adoration of the Magi (Brussels, Musee royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique). 29 Cf. Pettegree & Der Weduwen 2019. 30 Quoted in Cat. Kingston 1996, p. I. 31 Van Berke! 1995, p. 185.

Rembrandt's century was not just a heyday of art but also a golden age for Dutch book culture. Owning a library, much like an art collection, had become a symbol of status. In fact, the Republic's two million inhabitants owned about three million paintings and an altogether jaw-dropping 300 million books. 29 Literacy was at a correspondingly high level. With a fair amount of surprise, Italian Lodovico Guicciardini noted down in 1612 that even ordinary Dutchmen had rudimentary knowledge of grammar, and that nearly everyone, including peasants and country folk, could at the very least read and write. 30 Since 1625 an official decree instituted schoo ling for broad strata of the general population. Education was considered the foundation and guarantee of we lfare and social cohesion. As the second largest city in the Netherlands, Rembrandt's hometown of Leiden was a hub of commerce, religion, and science: in 1575, William of Orange had rewarded the city's brave resistance against the Spaniards by founding the first Protestant university here, an ambitious rival to the Catholic university established in the Flemish town of Leuven. 31 It attracted many great minds, including Justus Lipsius, Hugo Grotius, Daniel Heinsius, or Rene Descartes, whi le pioneering the fields of theo logy and oriental phi lology. Rembrandt's parents had also dreamt up an academic path for their son, as it seems. As the on ly of their children - his brothers learned craft - they sent him to Latin school in order to prepare for university. Rembrandt enrolled in 1620, though he may have never actually studied here.

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Still, he soaked up the intellectual and art-loving atmosphere of his hometown and witnessed how the Protestant orientation toward the written word and love for the book led, for instance, to the emergence of the novel genre of book still lifes, embedded in popular images of readers and scholars.32 In a milieu of heated theological debate and tumultuous dailylifethe scholar had become a moral authority and role model. Humanism valued contemplating God 's creation and the finitude of all earthly things as the highest form of reason rather than a mere preoccupation with the empirical world. 33 Images of scholars and still - life motifs recalled the transience of man through emblematic symbols such as skulls and warned of the pitfalls of worldly research . They showed both the melancholy and hybris of the scholar, and even ridiculed the odd alchemist (Cat. 2, 7, 9). Rembrandt grew up with these ideas and visual traditions; nevertheless, his ambition and ingenuity allowed him to attain independent compositions, as we might see by comparing his works with the art of his contemporaries featured at this exhibition .

Act I: Early career: Leiden, Light, and Lievens The young Rembrandt and his colleague-friend Jan Lievens were already recognised as wunderkinder in their day and age. Their mutual creative rivalry between 1625 and 1631 left a lasting mark on Rembrandt's artistic style. Foundations had been laid earlier by his training under history painter Jacob lsaacsz. van Swanenburgh and especially under Pieter Lastman in Leiden and Amsterdam , respectively. As for etching, Rembrandt was largely an autodidact. He drew inspiration from the universal artists of the past, such as Lucas van Leyden and Albrecht Durer, but he was also stimulated by some of his peers from Haarlem, for instance Willem Buytewech. From early on, etching occupied as important a position as oil painting for Rembrandt, not merely in his development as an artist but also in solidifying his presence on the market. Following his earliest "preliminaries" 34 printed in small batches, various prints produced in larger runs notably fuelled the demand for and distribution of his compositions. Rembrandt's earliest known paintings date to 1624/ 25, while his first etchings are from 1625/ 26. They display a sort of ungainly naivete (cf. Cat. 10). But, very shortly, Rembrandt's tenacious dedication and artistic (ndividuality would yield masterpieces, such as his highly-acclaimed Judas f~om 1629 (cf. Cat. 12). Rembrandt had a special liking for biblical histories. He painted vivid narratives in modest-sized to miniature formats and interpreted the characters in human terms, paying attention to their passions, weaknesses, and fears. Rembrandt soon abandoned his early bright colour palette reminiscent of his teacher Pieter Lastman. Instead a subtle use of lighting dominates the atmosphere and dramatizes his works. 35 The subdued, earthy colour scheme is illuminated by a golden, spiritual light, which directs the viewer's gaze and highlights conceptually significant areas and connections. Defying the Calvinist ban on imagery, both Rembrandt and Lievens also incorporate traditional Catholic motifs in their work produced for a clientele diverse in confession , such as the figure of a priest (Cat. 17), or of a Christian scholar (Cat. 15). Rembrandt's rendition of St Jerome (Cat . 20) appealed to collectors of all denominations as an embodiment of vita contemplativa and humanist erudition. 36 Creative rivalry with the graphic art of the Old Masters, such as Albrecht DOrer, was also among the reasons why Rembrandt chose to treat this motif. 37 One assessment in a chapter dedicated to so-ca lled kamerlicht (chamber light) from the book lnleyding tot de hooge schoole der schilderkonst by Rembrandt's pupil Samuel van Hoogstraten could as easily apply to his teacher: "DOrer has entertained himself greatly with the inward-shining sunlight on his Saint Jerome in His Study." 38 Rembrandt found an ideal experimental field for his fiery ingenuity and interest in portraying human emotion in the tronie genre. In addition to his own reflection in the mirror, Rembrandt would commonly base these studies of expression on elderly sitters. In his day an old face was directly associated with venerable wisdom. An entry from Constantijn Huygens' diary in roughly 1629 describes an "aged, wrinkled face like that of a philosopher" made by Jan Lievens, then owned by the Stadtholder's treasurer Thomas Brouart. 39 Together with Lievens, Rembrandt lay the groundwork for the tronie on the Dutch art market. The respect these young art prodigies enjoyed is evinced by the work of other artists who quoted Rembrandt's and Lievens' heads on

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Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rij n - co py (Isaac de Jouderville?) Judas Repentant, Returning the Thirty Pieces of Silver (detail), after 1629 Oil on ca nvas, 79 x 102.5 cm Prague, Galerie Kodl Cat.12

32 On the subject, cf. Cat. Kingston 1996. 33 Van Berke! 1995, p. 190. 34 Ger Luijten in Cat. Amsterdam/London 200 0 I 01, p. 13. 35 Cf. Van de Wetering 2011. 36 Cf. Scallen1999. 37 Cf. Rassieur in Cat. Boston/ Chicago 2003/04, p. 220. 38 Hoogstraten 1678, p. 272. 39 Cf. Hirschfelder 2008, p. 51. 40 The 1656 inventory, RemDoc 1656/ 12, records a box containing prints by Van Vliet after Rembrandt's paintings under no. 277; on the collaboration between Rembrandt and Van Vliet, cf. Cat. Amsterdam 1996, also see the critical revision of a close collaboration presented in Rutgers 2017. 41 Rutgers 2014, pp. 117-118; cf. the revision in Rutgers 2017. 42 Rembrandt's painting, originally made on wood, 99.9 x 72.6 cm, is currently at Les Mas-d'Agenais, Lot-et-Garonne, Collegiate Church of Saint-Vincent; Lievens' painting on canvas, 129 x 84 cm, is in Nancy, Musee des Beaux-Arts. 43 This mutually enriching work on the same subjects almost anticipates the artistic community of Vincent van Gogh and Paul Gauguin in the 'Studio of the South', cf. Cat. Chicago/Amsterdam 2001/02. 44 On this, cf. Cat. Leiden 2005. 45 On oriental stu dies in Leiden, cf. Van Berke! 1995.

their paintings (Cat. 23). Etchings made after Rembrandt's distinctive originals, including one from 1631 produced by Jan Gillisz. van Vliet in collaboration w ith Rembrandt, proved similarly instrumental for his reputation (Cat. 13). 40 Once again, he here followed in the footsteps of Peter Paul Rubens, who commissioned engravings after his works at scale.41

Act II: Talent with a Goal: Old Faces - Tronie - Orient Rembrandt's and Lievens' artistic collaboration in Leiden was a vibrant laboratory of ideas. Their fruitful exchange and debate is particularly evident when both handle the same subject. In 1631 each began working on his own depiction of Christ on the Cross,42 fo ll owing Paulus Pontius' engraving of a design by Peter Paul Rubens from the same year.43 In their tronies of elderly figures, Rembrandt and Lievens even rel ied on the same models. That is why a particular female and male elderly head keep recurring at our exhibition. We would readily recognise them as Rembrandt's father and mother, but there appears to be no definite proof for this identification (Cat. 30, 32, 33, 37).44 Their favourite themes also included models in oriental dress. These were chosen for their great visual appeal, as their exoticism roused attention and offered a feast for the col lectors' eyes. Goods streaming into the Republic through the West and East India Trading Companies as we ll as a visit by the delegation of the Persian shah to the Netherlands in 1626 heightened interest in these motifs even further, just as much as the ground-breaking oriental phi lology and Islamic studies done at the University of Leiden by scholars like Thomas Erpenius and Jacob Golius. 45

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From very ea rl y on in his career, Rembrandt was also in demand as a charismatic teacher. In 1628, Gerrit Dou joined Rembrandt's workshop as a master's apprentice at the age of 15, though the latter was merely six years his senior. Dou 's work featured in the exhibition shows how close he was ab le to approach the art of his teacher and of Jan Lievens. In fascinating ways, the artists experimented with diverse styles of painting from loose to fine and somet imes even combined several in a single artwork (Cat. 30, 36). Scratching in the wet colour was also part of their repertoire (Cat. 42).50 While Rembrandt varied his brushwork depending on the subject and need, his pupil Dou would soon focus on his extraordinary talent for subtle illusionistic details and since 1632 become the affluent founder of the Leiden school of fine painting. By this time, Rembrandt had set off for Amsterdam and Jan Lievens had left for London. Each embarked on their own path towards new cha llenges and independent careers. In the long run, Rembrandt wou ld turn out to be the indisputably most successful of the three.

Act Ill: Rembrandt and Amsterdam anno 1634, or Two Rising Stars on the International Scene Whi le Leiden's economic boom in the 1630s eventually came to a halt, 51 Amsterdam bloomed into Europe's foremost centre of business and culture. No wonder the city attracted an ambitious young painter like Rembrandt. His move from Leiden in 1631/ 32 was part of a well thoughtout business strategy. Whi le at first he had neither citizenship rights nor membership in the local painter's guild and could therefore not trade as an artist, he cleverly bridged the waiting time as an employee under Hendrick Uylenburgh and initially also lodged in his house. 52 The art dea ler secured him countless portrait commiss ions through excellent contacts with Amsterdam's elite. Rembrandt produced highly innovative compositions, far from the cut-and-dried style of his co lleagues, and quickly grew to become the most so ught-after portraitist in town (Cat. 62, 63). Though no portra it commiss ions from his years in Leiden are known, almost ha lf of all his portraits date from his early Amsterdam period between 1631 and 1635. Later, it seems, he would only accept commissions for portraits when in need of a reliable source of income. 53

Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn Bust of a Man in a Fur Cap (detail), 1630 Oil on oak panel, 22.2 x 17.5 cm Innsbruck, Tiroler Landesmuseum Ferdinandeum inv. no. Gem 599 Cat. 30

Of course, Rembrandt hoped to enthuse the portrait customers in his studio for other paintings he created from his own inspiration. One instance of such an "investment into the future" 54 was his profile of a Man in Oriental Costume (Cat. 47), dressed in exotic fabrics and accessories. The same was the case with the Prague Scholar from 1634. Its opulent colourfulness sharp ly distinguishes it from the noble black of the po rtraits Rembrandt made fo r the burghers of Amsterdam. The painting had an enormo us aura and eventually made its way into the work of Rembrandt's students and assistants, including Govert Flinck, Ferdinand Bol, and Pau lus Les ire (Cat. 49, 56, 54). Their compositions adapt Rembrandt's motifs with a good nose for the market - but also serve as a dignified homage to their teacher.

However, the varied treatment of the subject reveals the difference between Rembrandt's and Lievens' artistic temperament. This had been recognised by the above-mentioned Constantijn Huygens during his visit to Leiden around 1628/29. The art-loving secretary to Prince Frederik Hendrik praised Lievens ' bold inventiveness and monumental style (Cat. 35); in Rembrandt's work, he admired the deeply felt depiction of emotions in small format (Cat. 30). The fairly small size of the panels must have also suited Rembrandt's penchant for experimentation. The fact that Rembrandt produced more than a quarter of his paintings from Leiden on re-used panels with abandoned projects also suggests he was on a constant search for new compositiona I sol utions. 46 Huygens procured both painters important commissions at the Stadtholder's court in The Hague. His sustained interest in young talents should be seen in the context of a quest for an artistic figurehead for the young Dutch Republic. The model in this respect was the Flemish star-painter Peter Paul Rubens, who perfectly represented the Catholic Netherlands. Since his assumption of office as Stadtholder in 1625, Frederik Hendrik of Orange wished to create a lavish royal court, of which owning a picture collection was an undeniable part. Frederik Hendrik's inventory from 1632 records five paintings currently attributed to Rembrandt, among these also the 1632 portrait of the Stadtholder's wife Amalia von Sol ms - the highest-ranking sitter in the artist's entire career.47 The fact that Prince Frederik Hendrik put up Rembrandt's Simeon in the Temple in his private chamber in the Stadtholder's Palace in The Hague similarly bespoke a great deal of appreciation.48 The Prince also showed considerable interest in Rembrandt by commissioning him for a series Passion of Christ between 1632 and 1646.49 However - and un like Jan Lievens - he was not among the artists contracted to decorate the Oranjezaa l at the Palace Huis ten Bosch by Frederik Hendrik's widow in honour of her late husband, where twelve leading Flemish and Dutch masters were engaged between 1648 and 1652.

24

46 Van de Wetering 2015, p. 66. 47 Paris, Musee Jacquemart-Andre. 48 Possibly identical with the painting in The Hague, Mauritshuis, from 1631 or with the one in Hamburg, Kunsthalle, from 1628. 49 On the series and patronage, cf. McNamara 2015. 50 Cf. Gifford (n.d.). 51 In Cat. Kassel/Amsterdam 2001, p. 12. Korevaar observes, i.a., that roughly half of Leiden's population h ad to receive alms in the winter of 1633. 52 For a detailed account of the collaboration, cf. Cat. London/Amsterdam 2006, esp. pp . 126-160. 53 Van de Wetering 2015, p. 316. 54 Van de Wetering in Corpus VI (2015), p. 530.

From Amsterdam, the artist established the brand called Rembrandt on the international art market. Around 1633, Rembrandt developed a new signature, ?bandoning his earlier monogram 'RM' (recently also supplemented with a patriotic capital L for his hometown of Leiden). The great Ita lian masters of the Renaissance - Leonardo, Raphael , Michelangelo - were all known exclusively by the ir first names. With a certain pride, he would hereafter sign his works simply: Rembrandt. Liefde baart kunst (Love begets Art), Remb randt's early work from Amsterdam, offe rs the best proof for the truth of th is adage. Private happiness and professional success go hand in hand . This found expression in the outright cheerfu l and colourful tone of many of Rembrandt's works during the period (Cat. 73, 78). In 1633, Rembrandt became engaged to Saskia Uylenburgh, the patrician daughter of a Frisian mayor, and cousin of his business partner Hendrick Uylenburgh. In 1634, the two were married. One year later, Rembrandt became independent and opened his own studio. In 1639, he moved to a luxurious residence in Breestraat, a fine address neighbouring the painters ' guild and elite customer circles. During these years, Remb randt burst with creative ideas in painting and graphic art. He now offered a portfolio of genuine variety to his potential customers, ranging from densely populated, minute biblical and mythological scenes (Cat. 73), through life-size portraits and fantasy

25

Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn Portrait of Preacher Johannes Wtenbogaert (detai l), 1633 Oil on canvas, 130 x 101 cm Amsterdam , Rijksmuseum inv. no. SK-A-4885 Cat. 63

Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn Diana Bathing with Actaeon and Callisto (detail), 1634 Oil on canvas, 73.5 x 93.5 cm lsselburg, Museum Wasserburg Anholt, Sammlung der Fursten zu Salm - Salm Cat. 73

figures like the Prague Scholar, to etchings of nudes or even nocturnal landscapes (Cat. 75). This is also when Rembrandt created his first book illustration (Cat. 69) and his first commissioned etched portrait (Cat. 98). He came to style himself a universal artist-the ultimate achievement according to the art theory of the day. Still, he puts a less-than - classical spin on traditional themes such as the female nude when he shows "this most wonderful motif for the bru sh, which all renowned painters since times immemorial have treated most assiduously;• with such repugnance that people wondered "that a man so possessed of sound judgement and reason could have been so obstinate in his choice"55 - as Arnold Hou bra ken wrote in 1718 (cf. Cat. 71, 72). Amsterdam also saw Rembrandt create numerous self-portraits as well as many images of Saskia , Rembrandt's beloved muse and manager (Cat. 88). Her face appears time and time again on Rembrandt's paintings, drawings, and etchings. However, we never encounter a traditional representati ve portrait such as Rembrandt made for his customers. Saskia , not unlike the artist on his painted self-portraits, always appears cast in a role and poised in picturesque costume (Cat. 78, 82- 84). These works were equally intended for sale as the etched head studies featuring Saskia 's physiognomy (Cat. 86).56 Her appearance thereby became as 'iconic' as that of her husband . Tellingly, in 1636 Govert Flinck created a pair of pendants depicting an Arcadian shepherd and shepherdess, considered Rembrandt's and Saskia 's portraits histories. 57 Saskia's iconicity is attested by a report published in the Gentleman's Magazine and Historical Chronicle of London in October 1768, where Elisabeth Percy, the Duchess of Northumberland, is said to have appeared as Rembrandt's wife at a masquerade ball held by the Danish king Christian VII - though a paintbrush in her hand certainly helped bystanders guess who she was disguised as. 58

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Rembrandt's delicate drawings of Saskia at the window or in bed carry a very personal, intimate tone (Cat. 88, 89). Unfortunately, the couple's happiness, tested by the premature death of three newborn children , was rather short-lived. Saskia died in 1642 at an early age of 29, having suffered from tuberculosis from late 1641. 59 Rembrandt afterwards repainted his Saskia in Profile in Rich Costume from Kassel , already completed in 1633/ 34, into a moving image in memory of his deceased wife. 60

Act IV: Rembrandt's Studio and Appeal 55 Houbraken 1718-1721, I, p. 261. 56 Cf. the reference to "portraits of the master painter Rembrandt and his wife" in Abraham Bartjes' inventory from 14 December 1648 in Amsterdam, RemDoc 1648/7. 57 The pendants are currently in Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum (Rembrandt) and in Braunschweig, Herzog Anton UlrichMuseum (Saskia). De Witt notes in Cat. Amsterdam 2017, pp. 26-27, that Flinck relied on works Rembrandt left when moving from his workshop at Uylenburgh, among them also our Cat. 85. 58 RemDoc e14231. 59 Broos in Cat. Leeuwarden/Kassel 2019, p. 24. 60 Lange, ibid., p. 29. 61 Cf. Franken 1997 and Van de Wetering 2015, pp. 3- 59.

The years following Rembrandt's greatest success - the completion of his Night Watch and his greatest pain - the death of Saskia - are often described as a time of crisis when his output plummeted. This is only partly true, as the period saw him create several highly-acclaimed works, such as Christ and the Woman Taken in Adultery from 1644 (The National Gallery, London). Rembrandt was also increasingly engaged working in his studio throughout the 1640s, mostly tutoring highly advanced students in the attic of his house on Breestraat, today's Museum Het Rembrandthuis. 61 His teaching fee afforded him a lucrative income. Many drawings, etchings and oil sketches from this time are extant and offer insight into Rembrandt's teaching methods. Collective drawing sessions naar het /even, after a live nude model, took centre place in the studio. Rembrandt's students, arranged in a semi-circle around the model, made their drawings on paper while Rembrandt himself etched directly into a copper plate. With slight variations in colour, light, and space, these figure studies also recur in oil (Cat. 90). Drawings with visible corrections or additions provide a vivid picture of Rembrandt's teaching practice. According to an account by Rembrandt's

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Remb randt Harmensz. van Rijn Saskia van Uylenburgh Sitting by a Window (deta il), 1635-1638 Pen, brown ink, brown wash, b lack chalk on paper, 164 x 125 mm Budapest, Szepmuveszeti Muzeum inv. no. 1582 Cat. 88

Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn Nude Man Seated on the Ground, with One Leg Extended (detail), 1646 Etching and engraving on paper, 97 x 168 mm Cologne, Wallraf-Richartz-Museum & Fondation Corboud, Graphische Sa mm lung inv. no. 11584 Cat. 96

ActV: The Late Rembrandt: Drama, Comedy, and Tragedy

student Samuel van Hoogstraten, great discipline reigned in the workshop: "Though I was sometimes annoyed by the Master's instruction, witho ut food and drink and feeding but on tears, I would never abandon my wo rk until I corrected the errors he had indicated."62 Arnold Houbraken reports Rembrandt himself worked with equal dedication, writing in his Groote Schouburgh that some of Rembrandt's students had told him "Rembrandt wou ld at times sketch a figure (een wezen) in ten different ways before he transferred it onto the plate and was able to spend one or two days arranging a turban to his liking". 63 Numerous paintings, drawings and etchings of head studies illustrate the artist's creative fervour (Cat. 46, 47).

Rembrandt's late wo rk largely defines the "i mage" of this Dutch artist to this day. It represents the culmination of his stylistic and thematic individ uality. Far from resorting to routine, Rembrandt continues to develop innovative artistic solutions and remains a "searching artist" 67 until the very end. This can be seen from the numerous compositional changes in the genesis of many works, up to his late oeuvre (cf. Cat. 118). Broad brush strokes, a rough relief of thick paint partly applied with a palette knife, strong dark tones with glimmering accents of light and unflinching representation become the epitomes of Rembrandt's art. "His painting style knew no contours or outlines, employing wild brushstrokes and slashes, as we ll as heavy dark shades, witho ut resorting to pure black [. .. ] still, he progressed slowly[ ...] for as soon as the first layer of paint had dried, he began wo rking all over again, so that the pigments in some areas formed a relief almost as thick as a finger;' Filippo Baldinucci described it in his Cominciamento e progresso dell'arte dell intalgliare from 1686. Rembrandt ignored popular Classicistic taste and the refined, colourful and elegant painting style associated with it. His aim was not to mimic reality with slavish accuracy but to recreate it on canvas, modelled by colour, light, and shadow.

As we have mentioned, Rembrandt also so ld the works of his students and often delegated commissions to well-trained assistants. Partly unfinished canvases would be taken out and completed in the studio. These also led to free variations based on the master's original works, known as "satellites". 64 The strong appeal of Rembrandt's studio is also attested by temporary visits of foreign painters, such as the German Christopher Paudiss, the so-called "Bavarian Rembrandt" (Cat. 107). Our exhibition also features the work one of his latest students, Aert de Gelder. De Gelder studied under Rembrandt between 1661 and 1663, and in contrast to the prevailing Classicistic fashion remained loyal to his master's style and repertoire throughout his career. 65 His composition Vertumnus and Pomona from ea. 1700 (Cat. 102) paid tribute to the Rembrandt of the early Amsterdam years - and was later furnished with a counterfeit Rembrandt signature. In the past, people have only too readily taken it for a portrait of Rembrandt's mother and his wife Saskia.66

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62 63 64 65 66 67

Hoogstraten 1678, p. 12. Houbraken 1718-1721, I, p. 261. Van de Wetering, Corpus VI (2015), p. 56. Cf. Hadjinicolaou 2016. E.g. Cat. Praha 2012, p. 152. Cf. Van de Wetering 2015, p. 223: 'Rembrandt as a Searching Artist'.

The self-portrait regains importance in Rembrandt's late work. Between 1652 and 1669 alone, he created 15 of his 34 self-portraits in oil. Their large formats suggests commissions by customers from noble circles, such as the Florentine Prince Cosimo Ill de' Medici. The latter paid Rembrandt an honorary visit in 1667 and likely also in 1669 in his studio in Amsterdam.

29

Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn St Bartholomew (detail), 1661 Oil on canvas, 86.7 x 75.6 cm Los Angeles, The J. Paul Getty Museum inv. no. 71.PA.15 Cat. ll7

Tomas Tichy Palace of the Mind II, 2016 Oil and acrylic on canvas, 150 x 145 cm Property of the artist Cat.130

th e fore in hi s late o e uv re , both in t e rm s of m otif and in paintin g t ec hnique. Not w ith o ut reaso n, th e em otive and haptic inte nsity of hi s wo rks is often co mpared t o th e in escapable "ci ne matic excess" co in ed by film th eo ry. 73

Re m b randt also remains fo nd of roleplay. On his Cologne Self-Portrait, he posed as the anc ient pa inter Zeuxis, said to have laughed hi m se lf to death (Cat. 118). The virtuoso jagged masses of co lo ur lend his vene rable face a truly three - dimensional presence. The fate of Saint Bartholomew condemned to death was equally tragic (Cat. 11 7). The painting originates from an Apostle series, on which Rembrandt worked intense ly around 1660. Bartholomew does not confront us as a heroic, unapproachable martyr. Instead it is a close-up of a pensive, vulnerable human soul. The painting's narrative attributes, such as the kn ife in Bartholomew's hand, are complete ly overshadowed by his face as the prime vehicle of express ion. The circle closes. As a c lever stage director and gifted rhetorician, Rembrandt managed th ro ug ho ut his career t o capture t he inner life, emotiona l states and movements of his figures true to life and t hereby to t e ll his st ory. Rembrandt's painting techn ique was highly unco nve nt ional and innovative, but his quest for the greatest proximity to nature and convincing emotion that captivates the viewer, or as he called it, beweeglijkheid, 68 was based throughout on the traditional demands on the artist and the 'rules of art' so readily denied by his critics. 69 Port raying the nature of the soul through facial expression and bodily movement had been considered t he ultimate goal since the aesthetic theory of Antiquity. 70 In this respect, Samuel van Hoogstrate n paid his teacher the highest recognition when he described him as the epi tome of a pai nte r of the inn e r pass ions (op de lijdinge des gemoeds). 71 Th e "dram a in Re m bra ndt's faces" referred to in the opening q uote by Jean Genet, or "Rembrandt's epip hany of t he face" in the wo rds of Joseph Leo Koerner, 72 comes powerfull y to

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Act V m ay end with a summarizi ng testim o ny abo ut t he m yst ery of Re m b ra ndt , with both t he qu estio n and an swer are given by Jehuda Ba con, born in Czec hos lova kia in 1929. Surviving Ausc hw itz led Ba co n, c urrentl y living in Isra e l, t o the path of an arti st. When asked abo ut the most powerful paintin g in hi s life in 2016, he an swered: "Remb rand t 's se lf-po rtrait at the Wallraf- Ri c hartz- Museum [... ] Smiling and c rying at the same ti m e. [... ] Th e re neve r is a si mple an swer with Re mbrandt." 74 Epilogue: After Rembrandt

68 Cf. Roodenburg 2010a. 69 Cf. Weststeijn 2005. 70 Cf. the dialogue between Socrates and the painter Parrhasius in Xenophon's Memorabilia , discussed in connection with Rembrandt i.a. in Nash 2006. 71 Hoogstraten 1678, p. 75. 72 Koerner 1986, cf. also Hammer-Tugendhat pp. 266-269. 73 Caroll 2017. 74 Bacon & Liitz 2016.

Acknowledgements This exhibition and catalogue greatly benefited from inspiring intellectual exchange with and the support of colleagues from CODART, the international network for curators of Dutch and Flemish art, as well as the conference Rembrandt and His Circle, held with the generous support of Alfred and Isabel Bader in July 2018 at the Bader International Study Centre, Herstmonceux Castle. My sincerest thanks!

In 2014, the National Galle ry Pra g ue la unc hed an exhibitio n project surveyi ng the re spo nse t o Rembrandt's Prag ue Sc ho la r amo ng co ntemp o rary Czec h arti st s. Th e final catal og ue ent ry all ows them to do the ta lking. The ir visual res po nses t o the prese nce of Re mbrand t's painti ng ente r into d ive rse d ial og ues w ith it and ca n equall y th row our vi ew o f th e Scholar into sharper re li ef. In fasci nat ing ways, t hese c re ative int er p ret ati o ns ex pli cate as pect s that are woven thro ugh Rembrandt's painting : to name a f ew - th e g li m m e rin g co lo ur magi c of Jakub Spanhel , Zd e ne k Trs' vo lu m inou s form in an interpla y of li g ht and shad ow, o r the expan sive world of th e Sc holar's mind , captured by To m as Tic hy as a kind of sacred a rchitectu re.

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Laura E. Thiel-Convery and Wayne Franits

Rembrandt and the Convention of the Scholar in Dutch Genre • • Pa1nt1ng

"N o Labour in the World Like unto Study." Introduction Fig.1 Albrecht Durer Melancholia I, 1514 Engraving, 239 x 185 mm Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum inv. no. RP- P- 08- 11.705

2 3 4 5 6

7

8

Burton 1638, p. 131. The first edition of Burton appeared in 1621. Burton 1638, p. 131. See Beverwijck 1636, p. 25, and Cats 1625, fol. 6or. For an overview of scholarly melancholy, see Dixon 2013, pp. 81 - 114. Aristotle/Mayhew 2011, p. 277. For more on the iconography of scholarly melancholy in Northern European art, see Dixon 2013, pp. 1- 30. Klibansky et al. 1964. See also Dixon 2013. As opposed to certain seventeenthcentury Dutch terms that were invoked in inventory records and art theory manuals to identify particular conventional subjects in Dutch art, specific terminology is lacking for the theme of the scholar. Although this omission is puzzling, this genre theme was a distinct and inspired pictorial innovation among Dutch artists. This essay is based, in part, upon Thiel 2016.

A lifetime devoted to scholarship has long been regarded as an ambitious, if not dangerous endeavour. Robert Burton, author of the famous seventeenth-century English tome, The Anatomy of Melancholy, once lamented that there is "no labour in the world like unto study." 1 Indeed, as Burton explains, scholars often "lose health, wealth , wit, life and all." 2 Early modern Dutch physicians and moralists similarly viewed the scholarly or contemplative lifestyle, as it was known , with suspicion. Johan van Beverwijck and Jacob Cats, for instance, who rank among the most frequently read authors of their time, discuss the serious problems associated with this sedentary and reclusive vocation .3 Negative perceptions of the scholarly lifestyle did not originate in the seventeenth century but are actually part of a long literary tradition. Influenced by the teachings of Aristotle and Galen, classical authors purported that scholars developed melancholy through their humoral predisposition to black bile and likewise suffered bodily neglect from excessive studying .4 A fourth-century follower of Aristotle mused in the now famous Problem Thirty, "why is it that all those men who have become extraordinary in philosophy, politics, poetry, or the arts are obviously melancholic ... ?" 5 The melancholic figure thus became aligned with intellectual aptitude and great genius. Similarly, artists including Albrecht Durer (1471 -1528), allegorized Melanchol y as a solitary figure surrounded by scholarly objects (1514, Fig. 1).6 In striking contrast to contemporary advances in empirical science, the melancholic scholar remained a popular, albeit exaggerated character, in the art of the Dutch Republic. 7 Despite the tradition of representing scholarship within an allegorical framework, not all seventeenth-century Dutch artists conformed to th is conventional mode of representation. Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn's large painting, A Scholar in His Study, is notable in this respect (1634, Cat. 46). Here, an elderly man with a dark vel vet robe, golden chains, and an ornate hat sits before an open folio. The man's direct eye contact with the viewer and pensive hand-to-chin gesture are visually arresting, as is the luxurious and exotic nature of his clothing , rendered with Rembrandt's characteristically masterful textural detail. Interestingly, the scholar mediates between two opposing areas of the composition: a stone chamber suggested by a column and an intimate workspace demarcated by a grey curtain and comprised of books, writing tools, and a pair of globes. While recognizable as a scholar, this figure is neither allegorical, nor definitively melancholic. This essay surveys the convention in genre painting of the scholar and contextualizes Rembrandt's unique engagement with this subject, mainly between the 1630s and 1660s.8 Focusing on Rembrandt's Scholar in His Study, three motifs are elucidated that suggest ways in w hich

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Fig.2 Jan Vermeer van Delft The Astronomer, 1668 Oil on canvas, 51 x 45 cm Paris, Musee du Louvre inv. no. RF 1983-28

Fig.4 Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn St Jerome in a Dark Chamber, 1642 Etching, drypoint, and engraving on paper, 155 x 176 mm National Gallery Prague inv. no. R 143740

Fig. 3 Jan Vermeer van Delft The Geographer, ea. 1668-69 Oil on canvas, 51.6 x 45.4 cm Frankufurt am Main, Stadel Museum inv. no. 1149

he elevated the iconography of scholarship and affected the tone of this theme. Rembrandt's scholars are not the liefhebbers (amateurs) of Johannes Vermeer (1632-1675), who wear contemporary fashions and are found in the domestic setting of the studeervertrek (study room) (Figs. 2, 3).9 Rather, by removing these aged figures from an identifiable time and place, Rembrandt not only encourages the viewer's engagement with his technique but evokes emotive reactions to the act of studying that were valued in early modern Europe much as they are toda y.

Pictorial Conventions of the Scholar in Dutch Genre Paintings and Prints

9

The contemporary fashion to which I refer is the Japonsche rock (Japanese robe), which will be discussed below. For an overview, see de Winkel 2006, pp. 36-39; idem 1995; and Hollander 2011, pp. 177-195. 10 Due to a renewed humanistic interest in the examination of his life, Jerome was, in fact, the most popularly represented Christian scholar-saint in art by the sixteenth century. See Kuretsky 1974, p. 571. See also Scallen 1990, pp. 22-29. 11 Beyond this association, van der Krogt 1993, p. 250, argues that globes were decorative and pedagogical tools in the Dutch Republic.

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When portraying scholars, European artists employ certain standard activities, articles of clothing, and settings to suggest themes of worthy intellectual endeavour. A typical composition focuses on a figure rendered in full-length or three-quarter length. Sixteenth-century prints and religious paintings of l~arned men, such as Saint Jerome, inspired this format. Although numerous depictions of Church Fathers exist, Saint Jerome emerged as a quintessential scholarly type in Renaissance art.10 Northern European artists from Durer to Rembrandt created their own interpretations of this saint in the wi lderness as wel l as scenes depicting him in a domestic study (Fig. 4). Whether found in a crude rural setting, or in an interior, such images convey both the desire to remove oneself from society and the isolation required for serious contemplation. These very same tenets hold true in Dutch art through to the end of the seventeenth century, even when the learned figure is found in a more secular setting. Dutch artists employed detailed scientific, mathematical, and even domestic objects in this convention to distinguish the theme of scholarship from more generic images of reading, wri ting, and quill cutting . Globes, texts or folios, w riting instruments, hourglasses, human skulls, and even musical instruments and clay pipes indicate the vocation of the figure, even when the scholar does not directly interact with these objects.11 In some cases, the Vanitas symbolism of scholarly paraphernalia is also apparent - by w hich Dutch artists suggest the vanity of life, or

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Fig.5 Nicolaes Maes The Eavesdropper, ea. 1655-56 Oil on canvas, 57.5 x 66 cm London, English Heritage, The Wellington Collection, Apsley House inv. no. Wm. 1503-1948

Much of the dignity of scholarly figures in Dutch genre painting hinges on the perceived age and the socio-economic status of the men depicted therein. Images of student life in the Dutch Republic, for example, frequently suggest the vices and distractions of youth and the cultivation of masculinity. Paintings associated with Rembrandt's circle often pertain to vices of sloth and sleepiness, while other artists portrayed melancholic students.19 Much rarer and more unrealistic are portrayals of dedicated students, because this subject suggests maturity and fiscal success typically attained only in adulthood.20 Most scholars in genre paintings and prints appear to be between the ages of forty to sixty years old and are not consistently portrayed as melancholic, notwithstanding a small subset of imagery produced in Haarlem. 21 Rembrandt popularized the notion of productive scholarship late in life, although artists in his circle sometimes coupled elderly scholars with the iconography of scholarly melancholia. 22 The majority of extant genre paintings suggest upstanding themes of maturity and responsibility combined with the worthy scholastic endeavors of middle aged or elderly scholars, as opposed to immature university students and their plight.

Rembrandt's 1634 Scholar: Three Innovative Motifs

the end-of-life preoccupations of elderly scholars. As with all potentially iconographic objects in Dutch art, interpreting scholarly paraphernalia as Vanitas symbols is context-dependent because such objects often functioned as real furnishings in study rooms. Artistic interest in predominantly male scholarly subjects also characterizes this convention in Dutch art. In fact, genre paintings and prints of scholarly women , or even women in study rooms in general, are truly rare. 12 This is incongruous with reality because renowned female scholars, such as Anna Maria van Schurman (1607-1678), were celebrated internationally as intellectuals.13 Women in the Dutch Republic were also highly literate, as popular Protestant belief encouraged worshipers to read and explore the Bible. Moreover, Martha Hollander's research supports the idea of the study as a shared workplace in the home.1• In his exceptional painting, The Eavesdropper (ea. 1655-56; Fig. 5), Nicolaes Maes (1634-1693) depicts a housewife - identifiable by her expensive dress and her large chain of keys - descending a flight of stairs from a study chamber that appears to support Hollander's conjectures. Until further research is conducted, however, the pictorial convention of the scholar appears to be gendered in art even more so than in reality. Dutch painters also frequently created intimate genre scenes of scholarship, which are at odds with the social nature of actual intellectual circles in early modern Europe. Constantijn Huygens (1596-1687) provides a famous example of one such virtuoso, or liefhebber, who corresponded widely with his peers.15 As a liefhebber, Huygens was not a scholar (geleerde) by trade, but a lover of intellectual endeavour.16 A liefhebber strove to increase his social networks through marriage, family, and friends. Although these networks were not linked solely to the upper classes, such connections served as important introductions to fellow amateurs, artists, and literati, both at home and abroad .17 With the exception of Corne lis de Man's (1621-1706) Geographers (c. 1670), though , Dutch genre paintings do not depict groups of burgher merchants or elite liefhebbers engaged in scholarly conversations.18 This difference indicates that artists often focused on scholarly solitude for conceptual reasons.

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12 One of the only exceptions is attributed to the Monogrammist IS, Reading Woman in a Study, likely 1633-58, oil on panel, 17.5 x 15.7 cm, Millier Collection, Staatliches Museum Schwerin, Schwerin, inv. no. G 3883. Gero Seelig, writing in: Cat. Schwerin 2013, p. 184, notes the influence of the Leiden school in this work, but questions whether the artist is Dutch, because some of his figures wear Slavic dress. 13 Schurman was the first female university student in Europe and attended Utrecht University (1636). For more on Schurman see http://annamariavanschurman.org/ and van Beek 2007. 14 Hollander 2002, p. 107. 15 Huygens generated over 72,000 letters, diplomatic correspondence, and two autobiographies that provide insight into his personal networks; see Dekker 2000, p. 8. 16 For an overview of men like Huygens and the interests that defined liefhebbers, see Roodenburg, 2010, pp. 265-285, passim; Dixon 2013, passim; and Franits 2015, passim. 17 For recent studies on the importance of social networks in art patronage and intellectual exchange, see, for example, Timmermans 2008; Brosens et al. 2012; and Kok 2016. 18 Cornelis de Man, The Geographers at Work, c. 1670, oil on canvas, 81 x 68 cm, Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg, inv. no. 239. This scene is commonly interpreted as a merchant and sea captain discussing trade routes.

19 In certain genre paintings, youths place their hands in their doublets, a well-known gesture of acedia (sloth) and sleep, for example, Constantijn Verhout, Interior with a Young Man Sleeping, c. 1663-67, oil on panel, 38 x 31 cm, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, inv. no. NM 677. 20 For instance, Olivier van Deuren, A Young Astronomer, c.1685, oil on panel, 15.3 x 12.7 cm, The National Gallery, London, inv. no. NG2589. 21 See the art of Hendrick Heerschop, including A Scholar in His Study, c. 16601680, oil on panel, 35.7 x 41.2 cm, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, inv. no. 2508. 22 For an example that includes a human skull in the presence of an elderly scholar, see Gerrit Dou, Scholar Interrupted at His Writing, c. 1635, oil on panel, 24.5 x 20 cm (oval), The Leiden Collection, New York, inv. no. GD-102. 23 In the collection of Friedrich Johan Nostitz (1762-1819), Cat. Praha 2012, cat. 356, pp. 366-369. 24 Provenance, as discussed in Cat. Praha 2012, cat. 356, pp. 368-369. A tronie refers to a character study, typically bust length, arrayed in foreign inspired clothing. See Hammer-Tugendhat 2015, pp. 109-110. 25 He probably left his studio in Leiden in 1633. Nederlands Instituut voor Kunstgeschiedenis (RKD), The Rembrandt Research Project, also accept the signature (reinforced) and date of 1634. 26 Ronni Baer similarly observes the association of columns and erudition in the art of Gerrit Dou. In many of Dou's paintings, a column is adjacent to a spiral staircase, upon which Vanitas items are hung; see Baer 1990, cat. 45.2. 27 Rembrandt, Saint Paul in Prison, oil on panel, 72,8 x 60,2 cm, Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart, inv. no. 746. 28 Jensen Adams 1985, vol. 1, pp. 195-196, note 279. 29 Dickey 1995, p. 349, note 76; de Jongh 1993, pp. 67-68, provides portrait examples in which a column may reference Vanitas (broken columns), chastity, or "function as mere stage-props." 30 Rembrandt, Minerva in her Study, c. 1631, oil on panel, 60.5 x 49 cm, Gemaldegalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Berlin, inv. no. 828 C; Rembrandt, Minerva in her Study, 1635, oil on canvas, 138 x 116.5 cm, The Leiden Collection, New York, inv. no. RR-107.

A Scholar in His Study elicits debate today because Rembrandt's renditions of the theme of the scholar often defy strict classification. Furthermore, details concerning the commission and purchase of this seminal painting remain unknown. In the earliest provenance record (1819), A Scholar in His Study was catalogued as a Rabbi. 23 Over the years, art historians have proposed other interpretations, including an Old Testament figure, a Classical philosopher, or even a tronie.24 What can be inferred from the subject, technique, and scale is that Rembrandt likely created this ambitious picture for a liefhebber. In addition, it is important because it belongs to a group of larger-scale portraits, history paintings, and genre scenes that define Rembrandt's art production in Amsterdam during the 1630s.25 He also refined the iconography of scholarship at this time by employing columns and staircases as references to erudition; historiated dress with exotic accessories suggesting the timeless nature of scholarship; and light as a symbol of thought and knowledge. As the next sections will consider, these motifs are recurrent in Rembrandt's art and convey the erudition, mental agility, and maturity required for scholarship.

Columns and Staircases as Motifs of Erudition Columns are an architectural feature found in several of Rembrandt's early paintings. They stem from his training in history painting and his creative affiliation with Jan Lievens (1607-1674). 26 Both Rembrandt and Lievens were pupils of the Amsterdam history painter Pieter Lastman (1583-1633) and thereafter became close associates in Leiden. Of particular interest to these two young artists were history paintings of aged men, often seen in the guise of biblical saints, placed in monumental yet vaguely defined, architectural spaces. Rembrandt's Saint Paul in Prison (1627, Fig. 6) is notable in this regard because it is one of his first compositions of meditative scholarship that is dominated by a large column .27 Seated at its base, Saint Paul is bathed in light as he engages in deep contemplation . While Rembrandt _employs this motif in a slightly different manner nearl y a decade later in A Scholar in His Study, both his biblical sage and his purely secular scholar align physically with columns. Uniquely positioned in the latter painting, the scholar's figure divides the composition , contrasting the stone chamber with the more intimate workspace. Rembrandt's divisive architectural settings in these paintings perhaps signal the active versus the contemplative lifestyle, opposing ideals that fueled debate on the role of scholarship in early modern society. The columns' iconographic associations in Dutch art with morality and learnedness are well established and may have influenced Rembrandt. In Ann Adams' discussion ofThomas de Keyser's (1596/7-1667) portraiture of the 1630s, she argues that architectural settings lend a sense of dignity to the subjects he portrayed.28 While columns may refer to the sitter's learning, other connotations are equally relevant. Stephanie Dickey and Eddy de Jongh, for instance, suggest their association with "worthiness," constancy, and fortitude in the context of Dutch portraiture.29 Rembrandt did not include columns in his portraits, but he situated the allegorical figure of Wisdom (Minerva) in a columned study chamber much like that of A Scholar in His Study. 30 Familiarity with Rembrandt's art likely inspired his pupils, including Ferdinand Bol (1616-1680) and Gerbrand van den Eeckhout (1621-1674) (cf. Cat 55), who appropriated the column motif

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Fig. 6 Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn St Paul in Prison, 1627 Oil on panel, 72.8 x 60.3 cm Stuttgart, Staatsgalerie inv. no. 746

for th eir genre paintings of scholars. Even artists without a clear connection to Leiden or Rembra ndt's studio, such as Hendrick Heerschop (1620/ 21-1682) in Haa rl em, employed columns in th is cont ext. 31 Rem bra ndt may al so have had pract ica l reasons fo r painting columns related to the architecture of th e unive rsity in his nat ive Lei d en. Fol lowing the wave of Iconoclasm (beginning in 1566) in th e Low Co unt ries, many co nvents and monasteries in Leiden were dissolved and several of t hei r bu ild in gs were approp riated by Leiden University for academic purposes. 32 Sanctioned by Prin ce William of Ora nge, Leiden University was chartered in 1575 and grew to become one of the largest universi ties in Europe. Paintings pertaining to themes of scholarship, including sub d ued sti ll life scenes of sc holarly paraphernalia, suggest a vibrant market for the purchase or co mmission of such works from local artists.33 Beyond appealing to this market, artists appear t o have soug ht pictorial inspiration from real architectural spaces occupied by the university, w hic h likely cont rib uted to the popu larity of columns in genre paintings. In additio n t o co lum ns, a sim il ar, recurre nt arc hit ectural motif in Remb randt 's art is the spiral stai rcase that sugg ests se rious contemplation. His painting, A Philosopher in Meditation (also known as Interior with Tobit and Anna; 1632, Fig. 7), is dominated by a large spiral staircase. 34 As ea rl y as 1673, th e invento ry of Peeter Wouters' estate described this work by its defining fea -

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31 For instance, Hendrick Heerschop, A Scholar in His Study, cited in note 21 above. 32 The university first occupied the Barbara Convent along the Rapenburg, later the Faliede Begijnhofkerk (1577), and then the Dominican Convent of the White Nuns (early 1580s), also located on the Rapenburg; see Moerman 2005, pp. 241-242. 33 For instance, Jan Lievens, Vanitas Still Life, 1627, oil on panel, 59 x 96 cm, Hannema-De Stuers Foundation, Kasteel Het Nijenhuis near Heino; Jan Davidsz. De Heern, Still Life with Books and Skull, 1629, oil on panel, 26.5 x 32 cm, Oblastni galerie Liberec. For more on such Leiden collectors as the professor Franciscus de le Boe Sylvius, see Sluijter 2001, pp. 102-127; ibid. 2015, p. 102. 34 Rembrandt, A Philosopher in Meditation (or Interior with Tobit and Anna), 1632, oil on panel, 28 x 34 cm, Musee du Louvre, Paris, inv. no. 1740. 35 "Een wenteltrappeken met een oudt manneken ... van Rembrant van Ryn". Inventory of the estate of Peeter Wouters, August 23, 1673. See the provenance in: Corpus II, p. 644. 36 Vries 16o4, plate 36; Slive 1963, pp. 120-149,

37 In wealthy homes, staircases were sometimes constructed from expensive oak on the lower (public) section of the home but finished in less expensive pine in the upper (private) sections. Alternately, the type of stairs could depend on the intended user: landing stairs for the householders and spiral stairs for the servants. See: Fock 2001, pp. 85-86. 38 Fock 2001, pp. 85-86. 39 Ripa first published Iconologia in Italian in 1593. This edition was not illustrated, nor was the second edition of 1603. Dirck Pieterz. Pers's Dutch translation of the work, published in 1644, was illustrated. For a photomechanical reprint of Pers's publication, with introductory commentary, see Ripa-Becker 1971, especially p. VII. 40 My translation. Ripa 1699, p. 139, "Men komt tot deeze wetenschappen / Met leezen en met naerstigheid, / Des wyscheids weg heeft steile trappen, / Maar geeft ons groote waardigheid." For the unabridged Philosophia in the edition of 1644, see Ripa-Becker 1971, pp. 405-417. 41 The Ages of Man are schematic divisions of life stages. In prints, this concept is represented as a staircase, ranging from the birth, to the apex of life (typically age 40), ending with death. See further Sears 1986, p. 116 and Janssen 2007, pp. 39-47. 42 Jochen Becker, writing in Ripa/Becker 1971, p. XIV, argues that it is impossible to determine which specific language editions artists referenced. For the adaptation of Ripa's figures in the art of Daniel Mytens II (1644-1688), see Cat. Antwerp-Haarlem 2000, p. 286. 43 For an overview of the tabbaard in fashion, see: de Winkel 1995; ibid. 2006, pp. 36-39. 44 The significance of the elderly man is twofold, drawing on the allegory of the seasons and humoral theory. For more on this topic, see Janssen 2007, pp. 48, 76-78. 45 De Winkel 2006, p. 169. 46 De Winkel 2006, p. 169, notes that honorary chains frequently included portrait medallions of the ruler who bestowed the honor, which is not apparent in Rembrandt's painting. 47 Due to the fragile nature of silk, very few robes survive. One example is found in the collection of the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam that may have been owned by King William III (inv. no. NG-NM-1106, ea. 1675-1702). 48 The Japon sche rock was part of a network of gift exchange between Dutch merchants and the Japanese Shogun's court at Edo; see Hollander 2011, p. 180. Hollander 2011, pp. 180-181, 186, also explains that raw silk was used by 1689, then Indian chintz, in domestic production. 49 For a portrait example, Michie! van Musscher, Barend van Lin with His Younger Brother and His Future Brotherin-Law, 1671, oil on canvas, 59.5 x 51.1 cm, Amsterdam Museum, Amsterdam, inv. no. SA 35787. Jn portraiture, these garments were worn by both men and women, although most surviving examples depict men in Japonsche rocken. Sometimes, the robes served as studio props. Hollander 2011, p. 180, suggests that Vermeer, for instance, might have borrowed or rented Japonsche rocken, as he was not known to have owned such garments.

ture: the staircase.35 The ubiquity of spiral staircases in seventeenth-century Dutch homes has given scholars pause, however, and dissuaded iconographic interpretations of this motif. In reference to A Philosopher in Meditation, Seymour Slive, for example, argues that Rembrandt created a perspectival experiment based on an architectural illustration by Jan Vredeman de Vries (1604-1605).36 In addition, both spiral staircases and landing staircases, were architectural features in wealthy Dutch households. 37 Architectural treatises from this period also emphasize the ideal placement of private chambers adjacent to staircases because hall ways were not common before the 1650s.38 Perhaps serving as more than an artistic flourish , the motif of the spiral staircase was familiar to Rembrandt's art-loving contemporaries w ho had similar domestic arrangements and knowledge of idealized prescriptions for household management. Despite the prevalence of spiral staircases in Dutch homes, the frequency and the surprising proximity of scholarly men to staircases in genre paintings by the circle of Rembrandt suggests larger iconographic significance. An allegory of Philosophia (Philosophy) in Cesare Ripa's w idely read lconologia provides an especially enlightening metaphorical connection .39 Here, a woman clothed in a dress composed of stairs (Fig. 8) embodies philosophy. As Philoso,ohia explains her allegorical import in the Dutch edition of 1699: "One comes to these sciences I With reading and with diligence,/ Wisdom's path has steep stairs, / But gives us great dignity."40 Philosophy, a foundational discipline for nearly every early modern university, is thus described in terms of a staircase. Similar to the progression of the Ages of Man, a scholar must reach the summit of knowledge to achieve "great dignity."41 While it is not known whether Rembrandt was familiar with Ripa 's /conologia, this book nevertheless provided a guide for Dutch artists, as well as the learned populace, thereby forming a possible source for allegorical interpretations of the motif of the staircase.42 Whether construed literally or interpreted figurati vely, the architectural features of the staircase and the column often define the scholar and suggest the enduring nature of scholarship. Columns, after all, withstand the elements for millennia, and staircases essentially convey a scho lar to a study chamber, or metaphorically, lead to new heights of learning . The repetition of these motifs in genre scenes, portraits, and history paintings of upstanding, learned individuals indicates a larger ideological association w ith scholarship in the art of the Northern Netherlands. Timeless Scholarly Dress with Exotic Details The luxurious nature of the man 's clothing in Rembrandt's Scholar in His Study is not only visually appealing but imparts to him a specific identity. Dressed in a dark ve lvet tabbaard (robe) with fur lining, two golden chains, a ve lvet hat resembling a beret, and a scarf decorated with pearls, the overall appearance of Rembrandt's scholar seems neither contemporary, nor particularly Dutch. Yet the tabbaard, a garment that originated in sixteenth-century Europe, was donned by seventeenth-century scholars, c lerics, lawyers, and learned individuals.43 Although the tabbaardwas an outmoded article of fashion and associated with old age and allegories of Winter, it was worn indoors for warmth and evoked qualities of respect and wisdom. 44 Similar to the history of the tabbaard, Marieke de Winkel explains that golden chains also originated in sixteenth century fashion .45 While reminiscent of the honorary chains bestowed to famous artists, including Rubens (1577-1640), De Winkel notes that Rembrandt was not known to have received such a gift. 46 Robes were quintessential to the convention of the scholar in Dutch art, but Rembrandt's largely historicized approach to scho larly dress contrasts the more contemporary fashions depicted by the 1650s. Around this time the Japonsche rock (Japanese robe) was introduced to the Dutch Republic as a new fashion with which exoticism and material prestige were associated. Vermeer's figures in The Astronomer and The Geographer (Figs. 2 and 3) wear just such robes. The bright colours and silky sheen characteristic of this garment are apparent, as are wide sleeves and even its weight it was typically padded (or wadded) for wa rmth and worn with or without a sash .47 Initially, Japonsche rocken were exclusive to men affiliated with the Vereenigde Oost- lndische Compagnie (Dutch East India Company), but we re later sold at auction s and even produced domestically in the Netherlands. 48 The declining popularity of the tab baard and the increasing availability of Japonsche rocken, led genre painters and portraitists alike to feature the latter t ype of robe in their art.•9 Its appeal must have been due not only to its

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cultural associations but also to the potential beauty of the silk material rendered naar het /even, or "after life." Yet the luxurious tabbaard in A Scholar in His Study is likewise rife with significance. By consistently depicting a garment that was associated with the past and old age, Rembrandt suggests gravitas and scholarly dignity in a way that Vermeer's fashionable robes do not. 50 More so than the scholar's timeless robes, the figure's hat and scarf in A Scholar in His Study provide insight into Rembrandt's creative approach to this subject. As technical analys is of A Scholar in His Study has revealed, the artist initiall y painted the scho lar wea ring a turban. 51 Reminiscent of his painting of 1632, Man in Oriental Costume ("The Noble Slav''), Rembrandt's conception of the scholar was originally closer to an exotic and emotive tronie figure. 52 Rembrandt changed direction, however, by replacing the turban with a hat that resembles a beret. 53 In early modern European academic regalia , berets were a component of formal professio nal robes, much as they are today.54 Artists in Rembrandt's circle adopted the velvet beret for their pictures because of these cultural associations, sometimes pairing the hat with "exotic" or even historical sartorial items, similar to the pearl scarf that Rembrandt retained underneath the scholar's beret. Ferdinand Bol's painting The Astronomer (1652, Cat. 56) serves as one such examp le. Bol's figure wears a hat and robe that are unsurprising in this context , but the garment worn beneath and the high-waisted belt are uncommon, if not imaginary, items of dress.55 One possible source of inspiration for Bol during the 1650s was Anthony van Dyck's (1599-1641) lconographie, an influential series of portrait prints by and after this renowned artist that was initially pub lished in 1645.56 By clothing his figure in common scholarly garb and foreign dress, Bol employs artistic license to impart a certain majesty to his figure. The blurring of sartorial elements drawn from tronie paintings, genre subjects, and even portraiture, is unique to Rembrandt and his circle, thus making these scholarly figures at once recognizable and extraordinary. Rembrandt's creative approach to scholarly dress was more than a mere artistic construct because the social practice of scholarship extended to material furnishings, including clothing , which testified to the worthiness of the individual. Similar to the development of private study chambers and the practice of silent investigation, the process of adorning one's body with robes to make oneself admissible to world of learning is a longstanding literary trope. While the fash -

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Fig. 7

Fig. 8

Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn A Philosopher in Meditation, 1632 Oil on panel, 28 x 34 cm Paris, Musee du Louvre inv. no. 1740

Anonymous Philosophia in: Cesare Ripa, lconologia of Uytbeeldinghen des Verstants, 1644 woodcut, GieBen, Universitatsbibliothek

50 Speaking in general about the tabbaard, de Winkel 1995, p. 161, argues that a link was forged between this robe and "gravitas, dignitas and studio." 51 Infrared Reflectography of the painting distinctly reveals a larger, more turbanshaped hat. Nederlands Instituut voor Kunstgeschiedenis (RKD), technical document 5016750, https://rkd.nl/explore/ technical/5016750 . Additional information can be found in specific entries that accompany this catalogue to the exhibition. 52 Compare to Rembrandt, Man in Oriental Costume , 1632, oil on canvas, 152.7 x lll.l cm, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, inv. no. 20.155.2. 53 A black beret is recurrent in Rembrandt's self-portraiture and in tronies from the late 1630s/ 40s, for instance, Self-Portrait at the Age of 34, oil on canvas, 102 x 80 cm, The National Gallery, London, inv. no. NG672; Old Man Shading his Eyes with His Hand, c. 1639, etching and drypoint on laid paper, 14 x ll.6 cm, National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., inv. no. 1943.3.7194. 54 As de Winkel 2006, p. 62, explains, "The statutes of the University of Leiden of 1631 show that placing a velvet bonnet on the head of the graduate was an integral part of the ceremony for conferring a doctorate." 55 Ferdinand Bol, An Astronomer, 1652, oil on canvas, 127 x 135 cm, The National Gallery, London, inv. no. NG679. The belt likely depicts a Roman emperor; see https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/ paintings/ferdinand-bol -an-astronomer 56 Iconographie was initially published in 1645 and was known to Rembrandt and his circle; see Dickey 2001, pp. 289- 303; ibid. 2004, pp. 24-25.

ions of scholarly robes may have changed during the seventeenth century, the tabbaard and Japonsche rock were domestic garments worn by scores of men in the Dutch Republic for style and comfort.57 Artists including Rembrandt understood the need for such robes in cold domestic interiors, and more significantly, for their ideological associations with scholarly dignity.

Light as a Symbol of Thought and the Exchange of Knowledge

57 By the early eighteenth century, however, students at the University of Leiden began to wear similar Indian chintz robes in public. For the most frequently cited travel literature on this subject, see Hollander 20ll, p. 188. 58 Barlaeus 1632, as reprinted as reprinted in idem 2012, p. 61, "Acht het ook niet het mooiste, dat ge schittert door goud en zilver, maar door het licht van kennis." 59 Rembrandt, Portrait of Jan Six, 1647, etching, dry needle and burin, 24.4 x 19.1 cm, Museum Het Rembrandthuis, Amsterdam, inv. no. B.285 IV. 60 Dickey 2004, p. 115. See, more recently, Cat. Amsterdam 2017. 61 See Dickey 2004, p. ll5, for further analysis. Smith 1988, p. 51, similarly interprets Rembrandt's use oflight as signifying "an 'inner light' that is linked metaphorically to light streaming in his window."

When faced with the challenge of conveying human thought, Rembrandt experimented with light and shadows to represent this invisible capacity in his early wo rks produced in Leiden. During the late 1620s and early 1630s, the artist painted several scenes of saintly men involved in meditative scholarsh ip, such as the aforementioned Saint Paul in Prison (Fig. 6). In this interesting example, the saint's down-turned face, the open folio in his lap, and his right foot are all bathed in light. The fact that Rembrandt highlights Paul's physical connection to his writing and his bare foot is significant: this relates to the saint's piety in.that he has removed one of his sandals because he is on "holy" ground, as he seeks divine guidance. The connection between profound thoughts, faith , and humility is conveyed through light that emphasizes the intellectual or spiritual illumination occurring in this scene. Rembrandt also turned to light for dramatic effect and to suggest a sitter's interiority in portraits. In early modern Europe, learning, cognition, and wisdo m were often described by analogies to light. In Caspar Barlaeus' Mercator Sapiens (1632), for example, the author explains that "the light of knowledge" is more beautiful than the glitter of gold and silver.58 A visual connection is similarly forged in Rembrandt's portrait (1647) of the eminent Dutch patrician, Jan Six (1618-1700; Fig. 9).59 In this etching, Six appears to lean on a windowsill casually while his face and the text he holds radiate light. Preparatory drawings reveal that Rembrandt first depicted Six engaged with the viewer and accompanied by a lively dog, but he settled on this version in which the sitter is unaware of our presence. 60 These compositiona l choices reflect Six's preferences and suggest that the subject of Rembrandt's work is, in fact, this man's intellectual ruminati ons. 61 While A Scholar in His Study is a genre scene, not a portrait, light also plays a sig nifica nt role in this scene of interiorized reflection. Not unlike the Six portrait, Rembrandt's masterful control of light and dark in A Scholar in His Study suggests that reflection and cognition are narrative elements.

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A recurrent effect in Rembrandt's oeuvre is his use of compositional lighting to underscore connections between scholars and their scholarly paraphernalia. Rembrandt leaves A Scholar in His Study open to similar interpretations. Could the figure be debating with the author of the text he is reading or is he a writer reflecting upon his own words? 62 In paintings ranging from Rembrandt's early Biblical scenes, to genre and tronies, and to portraits, he conveys personal connections to the acts of reading and (spiritua l) reflection through light and touch. Rembrandt thus achieves multi-faceted interpretive possibilities and innovation within the con vention of the scholar by capturing ephemeral, invisible thoughts, and mental engagement with words through the medium of light. His evocation of narratives of intellectual inspiration and scholastic endeavor are hence not bound by temporal constraints.

Fig. 9 Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn Jan Six, 1647 Etching on paper, 245 x 191 mm Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum inv. no. RP-P-1962-lll

Conclusion Rembrandt and his pupils fostered interest in the theme of scholars and brought a timeless sense of legitimacy to these figures in Dutch genre paintings produced between 1630 and 1660. Notably, t he genre depictions of scholars in the art of Rembrandt and his circ le are nei ther comedic, nor particularly contempo raneous.63 By choosing to convey the gravitas and discipline of scholars in Dutch society, Rembrandt encourages viewers' intellectual engagement with his art. His technique also inspires reflection upon personal, emotional responses to scholarly endeavor, interiority, and the privileged social practices of scholastic contemplation. Despite different artistic approaches to this subject in the latter half of the century, including genre paintings by Vermeer and his Delft colleagues, Rembrandt's treatment of it remained unique. Nevertheless, his innovations set the tone for how this theme would evolve in art across the Dutch Republic until the end of the century, both as a theme of social and cultural merit and as one of pictorial innovation and personal connection. Appendix: Collecting Genre Paintings of Scholars in the Dutch Republic It is well known that paintings were avidly collected within the Dutch Republic. While oft-quoted contemporary travellers' reports concerning a plethora of pictures that supposedly could be found in such unlikely places as blacksmiths ' forges may seem a bit exaggerated, the varied prices they commanded all but insured their affordability for a significant proportion of the population. 64 Indeed, abundant archival evidence confirms this . To cite just one example, John Michael Montias notes the presence of paintings in two thirds of the homes in the city of Delft in the 1640s, with average hold ings of about eleven per household. 65 In an era in which the average midd le-class salary amounted to approximately 600-700 guilders per annum, a painting of decent quality could be purchased for as little as ten to fifteen guilders and often for less.66 Therefore, it is hardly surprising that genre paintings depicting scholars - and in this context , the subject "scholars" is meant in its widest application - appear in contemporary inventories, including those of some of the wealthiest collectors of the era. Yet caution must be exercised in assessing these inventories. There are not necessaril y ties between, say, the profession of a particular owner and the subject matter of the pictures he amassed - in fact, this is a rare occurrence - nor between these subjects and the rooms in which they were displayed. In truth , in the Dutch Rep ubl ic many col lections were in al l likel ihood assemb led p ri ma ri ly for decorat ive purposes. 67 St ill, a brief look at some of the inventories of col lections containing pictures of scholars does yie ld some interesting results. As was mentioned, paintings of this subject appear in the collections of some of the coun try's most moneyed citizens. For instance, the immensely wealthy Leiden textile merchant and maecenas, Pieter de la Court van der Voort (1664-1739), owned a painting by Adriaen van Ostade representing a lawyer in his study. The picture is listed in his son Allard de la Court's (1688-1749) inventory, compiled around 1749. There, this "artful and wonderfully detailed" painting is recorded as having been purchased by his father from a Miss Anna Backer for 140 gu il ders, a price certain ly indicative of its high qua lity.68 Decades earlier, in Haarlem, an inventory of the estate of the short- lived Daniel Colterman (1636-1672) lists a philosopher by cand le light, unfortunately without an attribution or value estimate.69 Colterman may have died young but he had become rich thanks to an inheritance from his father cou -

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62 The text is illegible; see Corpus II, p. 514. 63 Rembrandt experimented with a negative interpretation of old age in Parable of the Rich Fool 1627, oil on panel, 31.9 x 42.5 cm, Gemaldegalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Berlin, inv. no. 828 D, but the majority of his history paintings and genre paintings of scholars are not comedic or disparaging of scholarship. 64 See, for example, the account of a British traveler to the Netherlands in 1640 quoted by Slive 1995, p. 5. See also Montias 1982, pp. 269-270; Bok 2001, p. 206. More recently, see Sluijter 2015, p. 89, who does not believe that such reports are necessarily exaggerated. 65 Montias 1982, p. 220. 66 Among others, John Michael Montias has analyzed the prices of pictures and other aspects of the seventeenth-century Dutch art market, a subject of increasing investigation in recent decades; see, for example, his classic study, Montias 1982. See also Goosens 2001, pp. 288-294 and Biesboer-Togneri 2001, pp. 37-39, both of whom discuss the cost of genre paintings produced by artists in Haarlem. 67 For these points, see Loughman-Montias 2000, pp. 13, 42, 50; Sluijter 2015, p. 90. 68 See Scheurleer-Fock-van Dissel 1987, p. 443, no. 13. For Pieter de la Court van der Voort's activities as a patron, see Fock 1983. Van Ostade's painting is presently in the collection of the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, inv. no. 1637 (OK). 69 Biesboer-Togneri 2001, p. 229, No. 55, "een stuck van een philosop met een brandende kaers." For Colterman, see Biesboer-Togneri 2001, pp. 227-228.

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Adriaen Paedts Sr's vitae is fully consonant with those of other known cognoscenti of Vermeer's art. 80 A lawyer by training, he served on Rotterdam 's town council, a position traditionally reserved for the most prominent citizens. Moreover, in 1668, he was appointed director of the c ity's chamber of the Dutch East India Company - a directorship his son wo uld one day assume - the largest mercantile enterprise in the world at that time, overseeing trade between the Netherlands and Asia . Za ndv liet's suggestion that Paedts Sr might have commissioned The Astronomer and The Geographer on the occasion of his appointment to this post is certainly plausible but perchance can be modified somewhat. He conceivab ly commissioned The Astronomer first, in 1668, and then perhaps decided in the following year, 1669, to request an additional work frqm Vermeer, with a related subject: The Geographer. Thi s would account for the dates on the canvases and their all too obvious thematic connections while simultaneously enabling us to dispense with the troublesome "pendant hypothesis" outlined above. The subjects of both pictures were appropriate for someone who oversaw an enterprise where in navigation played such a fundamental role in ensuring its success. Paedts Sr's possible ownership of Ve rmeer's pictures might also explain why the globe in The Geographer is turned to reveal the Indian Ocean, the site of so much of the Dutch East India Company's mercantile activities. The c lose relationship between the disciplines of astronomy and geography in the artist's era likewise explains the distinct connections between the two paintings and by implication , the interests of the wea lthy patron, who, as has been argued here, probably commissioned them a year apart.

pied with judicious land investments. As Pieter Biesboer notes, the deceased 's affluence "was clearly expressed in the interior decoration of his residence, which , based on the descriptions in the document, must have been very elegant." 70 For this period, larger numbers of scholar paintings can be found in Amsterdam, which is on ly logical given that city's sheer size and affluence. So, for example, an inventory of the personal effects of Henriette Popta (1671-1696), residing at Herengracht 478, were drawn up shortly after her death. These included an art collection that she had inherited (along with the house) from her grandmother, Henriette van de Gracht (1625-1691). This inventory lists "a small painting of a philosopher" valued at the impressive sum of 388 guilders even if the notary provided no attribution .71 By contrast, another philosopher, in this case by the famed Rembrandt van Rijn, was only va lued at twenty-five guilders, having been found in a storage attic of the Keizersgracht home of Catharina Grebert (1634-1714) shortly after her death, in 1715.72 Grebert's late husband, Elias Nuijts (1614 -1680) had made his fortune in the sugar refining business as we ll as in the East Indian trade. 73 In the stock of the art dealer Johannes de Renialme (ea. 1600-1657), who was active in Amsterdam as well as in Delft and who catered to a high-end cliente le, was yet another philosopher, in this instance painted by Abraham van der Hecken (ca. 1615-ca . 1655). This picture, va lued at thirty guilders, is recorded in De Renialme's death inventory, compi led in Amsterdam in 1657.74 Earlier it was noted just how rare the correspondence is between a col lector's profession and the subject matter of the pictures he acquired. In those instances where such connections seem to occur the evidence is usually indirect at best. Such is the case with two paintings of scientists by one of the most famous painters of the entire Dutch Golden Age, Jan (Johannes) · Vermeer: The Astronomer of 1668 (Fig. 2) and The Geographer of 1669 (Fig. 3). 75 Both pictures represent scho lars in rooms filled with equ ipment germane to their investigations. They were sold together at four different auctions during the eighteenth century, commencing in 1713 - the earliest recorded reference to them. At that auction they were described as a "mathematical artist by Van der Meer and ditto [meaning an identical subject] by the same." Noting their frequent pairing in eighteenth-century sales, many scholars believe these pictures are pendants. 76 The term pendants refers to two paintings conceived as a pair from their inception. For that reason , pendants invariably carry the same date (or dates very close in time to one another), the same dimensions, complementary compositions, general stylistic affinities, and related subject matter. The Astronomer and The Geographer do not fulfi lI all of these criteria. Though nearly identical in size, their compositions are not at all comp lementary. Both feature a windowed wal l receding to the left (thereby conforming to the spatial arrangement most often seen in Vermeer's interiors) and their perspectival systems are completely out of sync with one another. Furthermore, The Geographer displays a more colourful palette and coo ler light effects with conspicuous contrasts versus the warmer, relatively uniform tonalities of The Astronomer. Such discrepancies militate against the idea that the paintings are pendants, notwithstanding their frequent presence together in eighteenth-century auctions. The aforementioned auction of 1713 yields some potentially fascinating insights into the pictures' early ownership. Held on 26 April of that yea r, this auction disbursed the collection of Adriaen Paedts Jr (1657-1712). Adriaen belonged to the Rotterdam branch of the distinguished Paedts family from Leiden. A year after his death, his estate was assessed at the then truly astronomical sum of 320,000 guilders.77 At the core of Paedts Jr's possessions were his astonishing collection of sixty-one paintings, containing many French and Italian pieces, along with those displaying a simi la rly classicizing flavour by native painters. He owned works by Annibale Carracci (1560-1609), Claude Lorrain (1600-82), Jan Both (1618-52), Gaspard Dughet (161575), Gerard de Lairesse (1640-1711), and six pictures by Adriaen van der We rff (1659-1722), a Dutch master living in Rotterdam whose history paintings executed in a classical style garnered him an international reputation in the early eighteenth century. The following day, 27 April , The Astronomer and The Geographer were sold, along with twelve other pictures in what might be termed a "traditional" or "loca l" Dutch style.78 In certain respects, these additional works, notwithstanding their beauty, must have constituted a self-evident anomaly among this august assemblage of international European art mostly (but not exclusively) painted in a classical idiom. These aesthetic incongruities lend credence to Kees Zandvliet's tentative hypothesis that Adriaen Paedts Jr inherited his Vermeer paintings from his father, Adriaen Paedts Sr (1631-86).79

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70 Biesboer-Togneri 2001, p. 227. 71 Retrieved from the Getty Provenance Index Databases. For Popta, see http://resources. huygens.knaw.nl/vrouwenlexicon/lemmata/ data/Popta In April of 1697, Popta's second husband and survivor, Jacob van Strijen, put part of this collection up for auction: see Hoet 1752, vol. 1, pp. 40-42. 72 Retrieved from the Getty Provenance Index Databases. 73 See de Witt 2007, pp. 47-48. 74 Montias Database, The Frick Collection, Inv. 180 Nr. 0231 [http://research.frick. org/ montiasart /browserecord.php ?action= browse&-recid =3266). For De Renialme, see Montias 2002, pp. 130-142, who demonstrates that the paintings in this inventory were part of his stock, not his private collection. See further Blecourt 2012. 75 For the following discussion, see Franits 2015, pp. 222-236. 76 See, most recently, Ducos 2017, pp. 209, 213. 77 Zandvliet 2006, p. 295. 78 For both auctions, see Van Gelder 1974, pp. 168-169; Dellahay-Schadee 1994, p. 36. 79 Zandvliet 2006, p. 295. 80 See Franits 2015, passim.

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Lucie Nemeckova

The History of Prague's Rembrandt

Fig. l Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn Balaam and the Ass, 1626 Oil on panel, 63.2 x 46.5 cm Paris, Musee Cognacq-Jay inv. no. J 95

This is how prominent Czech art historian Antonfn Matejcek commented on the acquisition of the fragment of The Annunciation (Cat. 101) in 1923, then thought to have been painted by Rembrandt. Matejcek, in: Volne smery XXII, 1923-24, p. 106. 2 Prokop Toman, 'Praha nalezistem Rembrandtu 1923', in: Toman 1930, pp. 19-24. 3 We here focus exclusively on painting, although the phenomenon of collecting Rembrandt's drawings and prints is a theme no less expansive. Of course, the body of prints and drawings attributed to Rembrandt within Czech and Moravian collections by far surpasses our singular painting. 4 Slavicek 2007, pp. 32-36. 5 Vincenc Kramaf devoted a good deal of attention to this work in several studies, and his comprehensive essay from 1926 remains an admirable example of methodological analysis. For more on the history of The Annunciation fragment, see Cat. 101, 6 This early work was purchased in 1906 by Prague's renowned collector and businessman Gustav Hoschek of Miihlheim from the art dealer Jacques Goudstikker in Amsterdam, with whom he intensely collaborated. However, Hoschek of Miihlheim died in 1907, and his heirs offered the painting for sale. It was subsequently part of a foreign collection, and in 1928 its current owner Ernst Cognacq bequeathed it to the city of Paris. For further details, see Corpus I, A2. 7 We must here mention the invaluable contributions of Zdenek Machytka and Lubomfr Slavicek, their numerous studies and essays on the history and development of art collecting and studies of sources pertaining thereto . 8 See the companion essay by Thiel-Convery & Franits. 9 Bredius 1935. 10 Cat. Praha 2012, p. 369. 11 Corpus II, p. 518.

Owning a painting by Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn (1606-1669) has always been the dream of many art lovers and collectors. In one of his essays from the early twentieth century,Antonin Matejcek remarked that "no collection can be considered important and attractive" absent a work of this Dutch Golden Age master.1 This view also mirrors the alternately successful effort of local collectors to obtain Rembrandt's art, leading to a sort of rampant hunt that briefly, and perhaps with some degree of exaggeration, earned Prague the honorific of a "Rembrandt depository". 2 Actually, the title more appropriately reflects the intense effort to attribute a relatively sizeable convolute of paintings in our region during the period to the master himself rather than an actual presence of Rembrandt's art in Czech and Moravian collections .3 In spite of excellent knowledge, wide-ranging contacts and the local collectors' relatively abundant opportunities,• time has shown that acquiring a Rembrandt for one's collection has never been an easy task. History therefore seems instead to align with the case of The Annunciation fragment (Cat. 101), purchased by Vincenc Kramar in 1923 for what was then the Picture Gallery of the Society of Patriotic Friends of the Arts as an authentic work by Rembrandt. 5 Through technical analysis and later research, the painting has been attributed to one of the Master's pupils, Willem Drost (1633-1659), though this does not diminish the power of this graceful and contemplative painting in the slightest. Barring an excellent example of his early work, the painting of Balaam and the Ass (1626, Fig. 1), 6 which only saw a brief spell in Prague, the only painting by Rembrandt whose authenticity has never been questioned remains the Scholar in His Study (1634, Fig. 2, Cat. 46). Yet the identity of the man on this painting remains a subject of speculation, and the way this work reached Bohemia is similarly enigmatic. The history of the only Rembrandt painting in Prague - to wit, the only Rembrandt in Bohemia - still generates more questions than answers, and the following paragraphs serve to chart several possible theories about the painting's subject, but also, especially and with the aid of available sources, its potential provenance.7 The Sitter and the Painting's Subject Rembrandt's Prague Scholar in His Study has been a point of interest to numerous Czech and foreign scholars in the past, and this has led to a correspondingly high number of theories proposed about the origin and subject of the painting. The question has already seen brief attention in the foregoing essay by Laura Thiel-Convery and Wayne Fran its on the depiction of the scholar figure in Dutch genre art, 8 as the painting always has and still offers broad possibilities of interpretation. Historians have argued for a wide variety of claims about the subject of the Prague Scholar, ranging from the already mentioned genre painting,9 through an unspecified Old Testament figure 10 or the physician Paracelsus, whom we will discuss below,11 to a rabbi.

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Fig. 2 Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn Scholar in His Study, 1634 Oil on canvas, 141 x 135 cm National Gallery Prague inv. no. DO 4288

Fig. 3 Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn Portrait of an Old Man (Rabbi), ea. 1665 Oil on canvas, 104 x 86 cm Florence, Galleria degli Uffizi inv. no. 1890 n. 8435

The last in this series of titles was associated with the painting long into the twentieth century. For one thing, the painting was listed as a Rabbi in a crucial inventory from 1819.12 It might also be due to the still lively debate surrounding a painting more than extraordinary in the Czech context, the Portrait of an Old Man (Rabbi) from the collection of Galleria deg Ii Uffizi in Florence (ea. 1665, Fig. 3).13 As Slavicek has observed, the question whether or not the elder on the Florence portrait can be identified as the Moravian native Jan Amos Comenius was especially fruitful and topical in the 1920s.14

12 Nostitz Inventory 1819. 13 Corpus VI, no. 306. 14 Slavfcek 2006-2007, p. 112. The identity of the man on the Florence painting has been a fascinating problem to many scholars in the past, though the claim the man is Comenius has not been confirmed or refuted with certainty as of yet. Recently, the issue was treated by e.g. E. van de Wetering, in: Corpus VI, n. 306; Henk Roos, in: Roos 2012; Meinert A. Meyer, in: Goris-Meyer-Urbanek 2016. 15 Corpus III, C 101; Corpus VI, no. 141. 16 See also Cat. Praha 2012, p. 369. 17 Corpus III, A 128.

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This leads us to another among a host of questions raised by the Prague painting - who is the Scholar, or whom is this mysterious painting supposed to portray? The bearded elder appears repeatedly throughout Rembrandt's oeuvre. We find his peculiar features, distinctive nose and characteristic lip line on other paintings from the 1630s, both by Rembrandt and by other painters within his circle. These include, for instance, the Bust of a Man in Oriental Dress (1633, Cat. 47), the Man in Oriental Costume (1635, Cat. 48),15 and Gover Flinck's Man in Oriental Dress (1633, Cat. 49).16 The Man in Oriental Costume (King Uzziah?) from Chatsworth House in Derbyshire, England (ea. 1639, Fig. 4), is a remarkable case in this respect. 17 The painting was made five years later than the Prague Scholar, but upon closer comparison of the figure's piercing gaze and his characteristic thin, pressed lips, one can hardly resist the idea that the sitter could in fact be the same man, only somewhat older. Additionally, and in tandem with the Amsterdam

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Fig. 4 Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn Man in Oriental Costume (King Uzziah?), ea. 1639 Oil on panel 102.8 x 78.8 cm Chatsworth House, Devonshire Collection

st udy of a male head with a t urban, it could give us an idea about what the Scholar in His Study m ight have looked like had Rembra ndt crowned the elder with a turban instead of a beret on th e Prague co m posit ion, as he origina ll y intended.18 The Man in Oriental Costume from the British co ll ect ion, whose history somewhat resemb les the story of the Prague Scholar and w hich we wi ll return t o shortly, has been cit ed by the literature in connect ion with the abovementio ned group of po rtraits, or more accu rately character studies (tronies), as well as the painting Belshazzar's Feast (1636-38, Fig . 5).19 Albe it not an actual portrait either but rather a dramatic narrati ve scene, here too the p hysiog nomy of the Babylon ian king unmistakably recal ls th e fi g ure of the enig m atic (presumab ly) Dut ch m an w ho lent his face to numerous portrait stud ies, and in this case also pe rhaps stood model for a character in a mu lti-figure scene. Though t he composition is rep lete w it h figural st affage, the pa inting's mood of lighting, the dynamic move m ent of t he orie ntal c haracter, and the al m ost palpable shock mixed with fear w ritten across Bels hazzar's face guid es our eyes directly to t he fi gure of our elder. Some scho lars have proposed that t he man on t he Prague portrait might be identical w ith the Man in Oriental Costume known as the Noble Slav(l 632, Fig . 6),20 w hom Rembrandt depicted on

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18 On the original corrections and further technical aspects of Rembrandt's Scholar in His Study, see the essay by Adam Pokorny, which treats of the painting in detail, pp. 162-163. 19 Corpus JII, A 110. 20 Corpus II, A 48. 21 Cat. New York 2007, pp. 554-567. 22 Corpus II, A 46. 23 Abraham Grapheus (Abraham de Graef, ea. 1545/50-1624) was one of the most popular sitters among painters in Antwerp; the best-known portraits of this distinctive man include a painting by Cornelis de Vos (Portrait of Abraham Grapheus, 1620, oil on panel, 120 x 101.5 cm, KMSKA, inv. no. 104), but he was also portrayed by e.g. Frans Pourbus the Elder and Maerten de Vos.

Fig. 5 Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn Bel1hazzar'1 Feast. ea. 1636-38 Oil on canvas, 167.6 x 209.2 cm London, The National Gallery inv. no. NG6350

24 See e.g. Jacob Jordaens, Study of an Old Man with Clasped Hands, ea. 1621, oil on panel, 67 x 47.5 cm, National Gallery Prague, inv. no. 0 2814.

a monumental canvas just t wo years prior to the Prague Scholar.21 However, thi s c laim requires some caution , as the chara cte ristic fa cial features and the painting 's overall impress ion differ quite starkl y. We could perhaps liken the features of the orie ntal man from th e Metropolitan Museum to the face of St Peter (1632, Fig. 7),22 but this only underlines the need for p ruden ce in potential comparison s and attempts to identify the elders w ith ea c h othe r. Rembrandt's fa scination for venerable faces needs no special emphas is, but even so we mu st steer c lear of the temptation to run together all of the sitters on his elderl y figure po rtra its fro m the 1630s and ta ke them for the same person. Of course, fascination and repeated work w ith the same sitter is nothing unu sual in the history of art. Setting aside the most readil y available 'sitter', namel y the painter stud ying his ow n face and mimic gesture in the fo rm of a self-portrait - and hardl y any arti st drew level w ith Rem brandt in that respect - we find a perfect example in nearby Antwerp, w here the masters took to the appearance of the local pa inter's guild administrator Abraham Grapheu s.23 The Flemi sh painters would portray Grapheu s as an o rdinary gu ildsman, but m o re often than that he was an anonymous inspiration for portraits of saints.24 The same hold s true of the man w hose fa ce

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Fig. 6 Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn Man in Oriental Costume, 1632 Oil on canvas, 152.7 x 111.1 cm New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art inv. no. 20.155.2

Fig. 7 Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn Saint Peter, 1632 Oil on canvas, 82 x 62 cm Stockholm, Nationalmuseum inv. no. NM 1349

peers at us from the Prague Rembrandt. Rembrandt and his contemporaries were obviously enthralled by the eider's distinctive physiognomy, and given the number of paintings marked by his features, he was doubtless a favourite sitter among Rembrandt's Amsterdam circle. In actuality, not a single painting where the masters from Amsterdam rendered the old man's face is a portrait of a specific person; instead, all of these are (almost psychological) studies. However, unlike the administrator of the painters' guild in Antwerp, the identity of the man cast as a scholar and oriental magnate remains unknown. Notwithstanding the earlier theories and names associated with the Prague painting, in the twentieth century it has become customarily known as A Scholar in His Study and remains known as such to this day. Here, like in many other cases, Rembrandt was not set on portraying a specific individual but on capturing a brief, fleeting moment and simultaneously a whole life in a single image. He painted a venerable elder, an embodiment of the world of science whom we have interrupted at the intimate moment of reading, and it is precisely the peculiar ambiguity and openness of interpretation mentioned above that has earned the Scholar its charm. The Scholar is a painting that counts on or even demands the viewer's participation, rather than being merely a passive record of the seen . Each viewer briefly entering the old man's world will experience their own story, one of many that Rembrandt lay in the Scholar's eyes.

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Fig. 8 Jacob Vaillant The Death of Seneca Oil on canvas, 219 x 176 cm National Gallery Prague inv. no. DO 4279

25 The provenance and origin of the Prague painting has occupied several generations of art historians, from Lubor Machytka (Machytka 1980), through the numerous studies written by Lubomfr Slavicek, down to the authors of a comprehensive catalogue of Dutch painting - Prague 2012, where we find a detailed description of the work's possible provenance. 26 Nostitz Inventory 1945; Cat. Praha 2012, p. 366. 27 Nostitz Inventory 1819, n. 265/XIX. It is interesting to note here that Nostitz had this early 19th-century inventory compiled by the respected art connoisseur and first inspector of the Picture Gallery of the Society of Patriotic Friends of the Arts, Josef Karel Burde; on the activities and fate of J . K.Burde, see e.g. Samal-Brozova 2015. 28 Interestingly, the prominent philologist, historian, and one of the founders of the Patriotic (now National) Museum, Josef Dobrovsky (1753- 1829), was one of Friedrich Johann Nostitz's educators. 29 In the case of Friedrich Johann Nostitz, these were not key paintings from the family collection, see Cat. Praha 1993, p.180. 30 Bergner 1905. Paul (Pavel) Bergner was a restorer, art historian, and curator, who specialised in the history of aristocratic picture galleries and painting in the 17th and 18th centuries. In 1897- 1918, he was restorer and inspector at the Picture Gallery of the Society of Patriotic Friends the Arts. See Slavicek 2016, p. 98. 31 Cat. Praha 2012, p. 366. 32 Nostitz Inventory 1765. 33 We may cite the example of The Feast of Esther by Frans II . Francken (oil on copper, 55.2 x 68.6 cm, DO 4201), listed as follows : Nostitz Inventory 1765, n. 129 (Ahasuerus); Nostitz Inventory 1819, n. 129/279 (Frans Frank Mahlzeit der Ester); or the painting of St Sebastian by Johann Carl Loth (oil on canvas, 117.5 x 98 cm, inv. no. DO 4358): Nostitz Inventory 1765, n. 174 (S. Sebestianus); Nostitz Inventory 1819, n. 174/171 (unbestimmt Der hi. Sebestianus an einem Baum gebunden, den Pfeil im Bauch). 34 Nostitz Inventory 1819. 35 Jacob Vaillant, The Death of Seneca, ea. 1664-65, oil on canvas, 219 x 176 cm, National Gallery Prague, inv. no. DO 4279. 36 Schaller 1795. 37 Slavicek 2007, p. 7738 Machytka 1980. 39 For instance, Lubomfr Slavicek identified item n. 18 in Nostitz Inventory 1738 with Jan Steen's painting The Scholar and Death (Cat. 8), see Cat. Praha 1993, p. 251, p. 251, Nostitz Inventory 1738. 40 The present-day Museum Het Rembrandthuis on Jodenbreestraat 4 in Amsterdam, see Inventory 1656. 41 Hoet 1752; Corpus II, p. 518.

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The Scholar's Journey to Prague No simpler is the question as to how Rembrandt's Scholar in His Study reached the collection in Prague. Numerous researchers in the past have worked hard to find an answer, 25 but besides staking out a few of basic points supported by indisputable source material, we are still moving in the realm of more or less plausible hypotheses. The painting was transferred to the Nationa l Gallery in Prague in 1945,26 together w ith a number of other extraordinary artworks from the Nostitz collection. Part of a prestigious aristocratic collection, the painting 's earliest record is brought down in an estate inventory from 1819.27 The listing was completed upon the death of Friedrich Johann Nostitz (1762-1819), a provincial patriot28 and art connoisseur, who notably expanded his family's collection after a period of relative acquisitional restraint. In 1796 Friedrich Johann was among the founding members of the Society of Patriotic Friends of the Arts (the forerunner of today's National Gallery Prague) and loaned its picture gallery a section of his family's art collection. 29 In an essay on the Nostitz's collector activities written early last century by Paul Bergner, we find it is precisely to Friedrich Johann that the collection owes its expansion, exhibition and arrangement as of late, citing Rembrandt's Scholar in His Study as the most important acquisition of all. 30 Naturally, earlier scholarship has attempted to link the painting to certain items in older Nostitz inventories. For instance, the literature has related the work to an entry in an inventory from 1765, 31 but this theory seems highly implausible. There are several reasons for this. The entry traceable as inventory no. 141 describes the item very cursorily and without closer specifying authorship as "Philosophus". 32 Once we compare the items in this list with the abovementioned inventory from 1819, it seems more than likely the painting referred to under the title 'Philosopher' must actual ly be a different artwork. The numeric sequence of both listings is identical, as we may deduce from the example of other, more easily identifiable works. 33 However, the 1819 inventory lists no.141/251 as "Weiland Seneca aufseinem Sterbebette".34 In all likelihood the reference is not to the Scholar in His Study but actually to a painting by Jacob Vaillant (16281691) of the Stoic thinker Seneca (Fig. 8). 35 Another argument in favour of rejecting this thesis comes from the Nostitz librarian and archivist Jaroslav Schaller, who wrote a comprehensive typography of Prague in 1795.36 His detailed description of the Pala is Nostitz in Prague's Lesser Town , which even includes an almost catalogue-like register covering all of the paintings in the individual halls, lacks any reference to a work that could be even remotely identified with Rembrandt's Scholar. This conclusion is implied by yet another source - a report about the transfer of 22 artworks from the Nostitz's allodial (free) property to a fideicommissum , which, in contrast to the inventory, also includes Rembrandt's Scholar in His Study. 37 The bu lk of artworks was intended at least partly to make up for the collection's impoverishment compared to the 1765 property inventory. Lubor Machytka has suggested the Scholar might be identified with item no. 18 from a much earlier inventory from 1738,38 but neither in this case does the laconic description "Ein Sitzender Philosophus", 39 without specifying authorship or size, suffice to confirm the assumption. Besides, and in view of the above, the fact that this inventory is a register of the property kept at the majorat Pala is Nostitz in Prague actually tells against this possibility. Given the arguments listed here, the fact that the acquisition of Rembrandt's Scholar in His Study is connected with the figure of Friedrich Johann Nostitz prior to 1819 remains the most solid piece of knowledge we possess. One might therefore turn to probing the earlier provenance especially in foreign inventories, auction catalogues, or other relevant documents. Unfortunately, the situation so far is similar to the Nostitz conundrum outlined above. Several theories are offered to explain the origin of the Prague painting, all based on attempts to identify the work with entries in various historical sources. If we begin by looking at a well-known document, the 1656 property inventory from Rembrandt's house on Breestraat,40 we have good ground to assume the painting was no longer in Rembrandt's studio after the mid-seventeenth century. We could relate this to one of the preceding hypotheses, namely that the Prague painting can be identified with the Portrait of Physician Paracelsus auctioned in Rotterdam in 1676.41 The auction was held by the heirs of Ma-

55

Fig.9 Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn Dirck Jansz. Pesser, ea. 1634 Oil on panel, 64.7 x 50.5 cm Los Angeles, County Museum of Art inv. no. M. 69.16

ria Pesser, w hose parents, Dirck and Haesje, we re portrayed by Rembrandt in 1634 (Fig. 9, 10). 42 This may have been o ne of the reasons w hy scholars have tried to identify item no. 14, sold fo r a rather substantial price of 200 guilders, as Rembrandt's Scholar, com pleted in the same year as the portraits of Maria's parents - 1634.43 However, this thesis has largely been questioned later on, and recent findings show that the entry more probab ly refers to the Man in Oriental Costume currently at Chatsworth House.•• An analogous case is offered by a later auction of the property of the Counts of Hogendorp from The Hague in 1751 .45 Here we find a more detailed account of the pair of paintings offered for sale, described as "Een Philosooph, leevens groote, door Rembrandt, schoon geschildert, zynde een Kniestuck ... Een ditto, door denzelve:' 4 6 However, such promising entries in historica l inve ntories and auction cata logue records are far too many t o co unt,47 and though the idea of relating a certain description to the Prague Scholar has undeniable allure, none of the cases so far can be considered watertight.

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42 Corpus II, A 102, A 103. 43 Corpus II, p. 518. 44 Rutgers 2008, p. 26 (dissertation), and earlier Slatkes 1992; Cat. Edinburgh 2018, p. 126. 45 Corpus II, p. 518. 46 "Philosopher, in life size, by Rembrandt, beautifully painted, down to the knees ... and another, by the same." 47 E.g. lot 19 (A Philosopher in his Study, by Rembrandt), Sale Catalogue Br-A326, 1735, or lot 194 (Von Renbrand ein Philosophus), Sale Catalogue D-A8, 1716, The Getty Provenance Index.

Fig. 10 Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn Haesje Jacobsdr. van Cleyburgh, 1634 Oil on panel, 68.6 x 53.4 cm Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum inv. no. SK- A-4833

48 Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Haymaking, 1565, oil on panel, 114 x 158 cm, The Lobkowicz Collections, inv. no. LR 11560. 49 Cat. Wien 2018, p. 227. 50 A list of paintings transferred from the Lobkowicz manor in Bfiina to the family seat in Roudnice natl Labem in 1870.

On the face of it, one would assume that tracing the history of a work as renowned as Rembrandt's Scholar in His Study should be a relatively easy endeavour, and that record s documenting the painting would form a seamless chain. As we might conclude from the preceding paragraphs, nothing could be further from the truth , and without surprise the case is not unprecedented in art history. One work w hose importance in the history of art and collecting in Bohemia is equally undeniable, Pieter Bruegel the Eider's Haymaking (1565) from the no less prominent collection of the noble famil y of Lobkowicz, bears a great number of parallels to the Prague Scholar.48 In the case of this Flemish masterwork, scholars have long and with varying success proffered arguments in favour of various theories about the painting's history and its way into the collect ion of one of Bohemia's oldest aristocratic houses, and it was only during a recent anniversary exhibition that new information about the provenance of this masterwork has surfaced. 49 The fact remains that the earliest reliable record about Bruegel 's Haymaking in Bohemia also dates to the nineteenth century, more specifically to 1870.50 Its earlier history - si milarly to that of the Prague Rembrandt - remains open to question, and will remain as such until one of the theories above have been confirmed.

57

Conclusion The foregoing paragraphs make clear that the story of how Rembrandt's Scholar in His Study made its way to Prague is not merely fascinating but also intricate and open-ended for the time being. Yet this changes nothing about the fact that the painting itself harbours the most powerful story of all. The masterpiece, a testimony to the genius of a barely thirty-year-old painter, carries an endless number of stories within. The noble Scholar's sublime composition, his lavish fur-trimmed velvet cloak, a table covered in brocade, all this suggests the exceptional success of the young Dutch Republic in the fields of science, commerce, and art, and on top of that it is a wonderful example of a painting that captures more than just a physical person namely a human being and his life story. The Prague Scholar was faultlessly described by Karel Capek, professing his admiration for Rembrandt and his art in one of his famous travelogues, who characterised the Master's paintings as filled with "[a] search for darkness, a search for the Orient. The man, a strange mixture of contemplation , sensualism, pathos, and terrifying realism. From the warm darkness of his paintings glimmer the jewels and tarnish of body, the bearded heads of Talmudists and the watery eyes of Susanna, the Son of Man and the face of Man; but most of all, the utterly disquieting and terrible, piteous and ineffable Soul of Man."51

51 Capek 1958.

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58

Blanka Kubikova

He was already considered an original printmaker by his contemporaries, e.g. the Italian painter Guercino: "[H]o veduto diverse sue Opere in stampa comparse in queste parti, le quali sono riuscite molto belle, intagliate di buon gusto e fatte di buona maniera [... ] et io ingenuamente lo stimo per un gran virtuoso," ("I have seen his various prints that have appeared in these parts of the world, which are very beautiful, tastefully engraved and made in a good fashion[ ...] and in all honesty I consider him a great virtuoso"), in: RemDoc 1979, p. 457, n. 1660/7; Baldinucci 1686, p. So: "Quello, sin che veramente valse quest'artefice, Ju una bizzarrissima maniera, ch'egli s'invento d'intagliare in rame all'acqua forte, ancor questa tutta sua propria, ne piu usata da a Itri, ne piu veduta, cioe con certifreghi, efreghetti, e tratti irregolari, e senza dintorno, facendo pero risultare dal tutto un chiaro scuro profondo, e di gran forza, e d'un gusto pittoresco jino all'ultimo segno; tingendo in alcuni luoghi ii campo di nero affatto, e lasciando in altri ii bianco della carta, [... ] ii Rembrant in questo suo particolar modo d'intagliare Ju da'professori dell'arte assai piu stimato che nella pittura" ("What really earned this artist fame was his bizarre manner of etching on a copperplate, which he himself invented and which was his own, as no one else worked this way and it is unseen with anyone else, that they should use such lines and dashes and irregular hatching, without outlines, to make a completely light section into a deep shadow, very strong, dense with painterly taste to the very last stroke; he really painted some of the surface black, but elsewhere left the white of the paper[ ... ] Rembrandt was highly appraised for this manner of engraving with the professors of art, more so than for his painting"); de Piles 1699, pp. 434, 436-437: "II y a dans sa gravure unefa,on de faire qui n'a point encore ete connue que je sache [... ] on y voit un clair-obscur et des expressions d'une beaute peu commune." ("In his engraving there was a way of doing things that had never been seen before, as far as I know[ ... ] we see a chiaroscuro and an expression of unusual beauty."); Ch. White addressed the originality of Rembrandt's etching in detail in his pioneering monograph from 1969; from the vast further literature, see Bevers 1991; Rassieur 2003; Hinterding 2014, i.a.

Rembrandt's Graphic Art

Rembrandt is one of the greatest artists in the history of European cu lture, having produced an extraordinary body of work while living a comp li cated life on a pendulum of success, misfortune, and personal suffering. Rembrandt was a phenomenal and ground-breaking painter, but he expressed even more of his individuality and creative talent in printmaking : we would need to look far and wide to find an artist who has transformed his field as much as he.1 Generally speaking, the purpose of graphic art consists in producing as many identical impressions from a single plate, and that is why it has often been considered a form of artistic expression inferior in authenticity to painting or drawing, art forms that result in singular artworks. This is not always the case, and assuredly not with Rembrandt. He approached printmaking with so much creative verve, tireless commitment to finding new visual solutions and an unflagging loyalty to his artistic convictions as to complete ly transform the essence of graphic art, expanding its expressive possibilities in revolutionary measure. At the peak of his career, nearly each of his impressions was unique. Generally speaking, Rembrand't graphic works are still less known today than his paintings. This was not the case in the seventeenth century, w hen it was mainly his prints that brought him world renown. They were admired and co llected far beyond the borders of his homeland, which he never left. The figure of Rembrandt the etcher was shaped in the powerfully inspiring atmosphere of the early seventeenth-century Dutch art scene. Rembrandt must have found this setting highly stimulating, though we are not familiar with the precise circumstances of his encounter with etching and printing. Throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the Netherlands were a sort of bastion of printmaking : local studios were rife with novel artistic techniques and driven by a vigorous search for new means of visual expression. 2 Engraving, having reached technical and artistic perfection in the work of Hendrick Goltzius (1558-1617) and his pupils, was used in innovative ways by Hendrick Goudt (1583-1648) on nocturnal scenes made after the paintings of Adam Elsheimer (1578-1610). A young generation ?f artists active in Haarlem responded to the stylised aesthetic of mannerism - among them Esaias van de Velde (1587-1630), Willem Buytewech (1591-1624) and Jan va n de Velde II. (ea. 1593-1641) - with the plain charm of linear etching and a celebration of the ordinary Dutch landscape. Rembrandt also greatly admired one of the most original graphic artists of all time, Hercules Segers (1589/90-ca. 1638),3 who profusely experimented with co loured ink and etching technique, and v irtually only produced monotypes. 4 Behind all these innovations lay a creative desire to push the boundaries of printmaking as an artistic medium. Though Rembrandt was never short of emphasising he only followed Nature, 5 he was very attuned to the work of other artists and over time assembled a vast collection of drawings and prints from both the Netherlands and abroad, deriving inspiration from it in his own work.6 Rembrandt took up etching in the latter half of the 1620s, upon returning to Leiden from his tra ining under Amsterdam 's painter Pieter Lastman. His earliest dated prints, likely depicting his mother, are inscribed with the year 1628.7 Still earlier prints have been attributed to the artist, probably originating in 1625-1626, such as The Circumcision (Cat. 10).8 At the dawn of his career Rembrandt only worked in etching, but he was only coming to grips with the technique and committed frequent technological errors. Some of his unsuccessful early work is thus

61

;:""g 1

Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn Self-Portrait in a Cap, Wide-Eyed and Open-Mouthed, 1630 Etching on p ap er, state II , 50 x 45 mm Amsterdam, Rijksm useum ·nv. no. RP-P- O B-697

Fig.2 Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn Beggar with a Wooden Leg , ea. 1630 Etching on paper, state I, 115 x 67 mm Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum inv. no. RP-P- 08-419

considered rare, with very few impressions.9 Rembrandt would be occupied by etching throughout nearly his entire productive life until the late 1650s. However, in the final decade of his career Rembrandt gave clear preference to painting , producing no more than two etchings in the 1660s: a female nude with an arrow from 1661, and his Portrait of Jan Antonides van der Linden dated to 1665.10 In the course of more than three decades, Rembrandt created over three hundred prints.11 While in Leiden (1625-1631), Rembrandt closely collaborated with his peer, the painter Jan Lievens (1607-1674). The two artists were so to speak "positive rivals",12 they exerted notable influence on each other both in painting and in etching, affecting one another's style and choice of subject matter. Stephanie Dickey aptly observed that during their early graphic career Rembrandt and Lievens approached the plate as they would a sketchbook.13 Both had a purely draftsman's approach. Rembrandt would mostly draw directly onto the plate even later on, and only resorted to study drawings in anticipation of more intricate compositions or prints made on commission. 14 Figure studies, especially heads, preponderate in Rembrandt's early work. In fact, Rembrandt was his own most frequent model, creating self-portraits all life long, both as paintings and prints. Up to the modern period, Rembrandt was the artist w ho produced the highest number of images of his own face. 15 He made more than forty self-portraits in oil, over thirty in etching, and further pieces in drawing, though the respective intentions differed. While young he drew self-portraits as a form of artistic exercise - he would depict himself at various angles, striking different expressive poses, grimacing, often dressed in an outfit with a hat or a beret or in historical costume (Fig . 1).16 He also keenly and innovatively studied the effects of light and

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2

Among the sizeable literature, see e.g. Cat. Amsterdam 1993; Cat. Amsterdam 2000, which provide a structured overview of the transformations undergone by Dutch printmaking in this period. 3 He owned the plate of Segers' Tobias and the Angel, 1630- 1633, which he reworked into his Flight into Egypt (NH 271) in ea. 1652. 4 Cf. Cat. Amsterdam / New York 2016, which is also his catalogue raisonne. 5 Cf. e.g. Sandrart 1675, p. 326: "man sich einig und allein an die Natur und keine andere Reglen binden solle." ("one should adhere to Nature alone, and no other rules besides"). 6 Cf. Ger Luijten, in: Cat. Amsterdam/ London 2000, pp. 11 - 12. 7 NH5, 6. 8 NH 1, 2. 9 E.g. NH 7, 8, 9, 14, 16, 19, 20, 21 and others. 10 NH 313, 314. 11 In the first printed catalogue of Rembrandt's etchings from 1751, Edme Frarn;ois Gersaint lists 341 pieces as the master's authentic artworks, while Adam Bartsch's catalogue from 1797 contains 375 items. The most recent catalogue compiled by Eric Hinterding and Jaco Rutgers in The New Hollstein includes 314 items (some prints are listed as works by Rembrandt's studio).

12 The phrase is due to Wheelock 2008, pp. 1-27. 13 Dickey 2008, p: 56, the note is from an essay on Lievens, from a section discussing the mutual influence in the early work of these two artists. 14 See also Bevers 1991, p. 167; Royalton-Kisch 2000. 15 Among the vast literature, e.g. Bode 1876; Wright 1982; Cat. Glasgow 1990; Chapman 1990; Cat. London/Den Haag 1999. 16 De Winkel 2006. 17 NH 170, 171; in painting: Self-Portrait, 1640, The National Gallery, London; Self-Portrait, 1642, The Royal Collection, London. 18 This aspect guarantees the continued relevance of Rembrandt's self-portraits today; on the other hand, it can give rise to highly subjective interpretations. The danger of this has been pointed out by e.g. Halla Beloff, in: Cat. Glasgow 1990; Royalton-Kisch 1991, p. 306. 19 NH 5, 6; NH 60, 61, 62; NH 63, 64, 65 and others. 20 NH 144.

shadow on the human face. In 1631 Rembrandt left to Amsterdam , where he attained prominent status and reaped professional success, and between 1638 and 1640 created a number of self- portraits of the traditional representative type, reflecting his growing social and above all professional confidence.17 As he matured, he came to prefer painting over etching as the medium for his self-portraits. We do not know why. His late self-portraits, characterised by pastose, broken brushwork, feel like powerfu l introspective studies, as we, having witnessed modern art, might imagine them today. Lively executeq and expressive, Rembrandt's self-portraits are quick to engage the viewer, provoke reflection and invite projecting one's own psychological states.18 Rembrandt also made etchings of other sitters than himself, some of whom appear repeatedly and are conventionally referred to as the artist's father and mother,19 or alternatively as one of his eight siblings. These are no individual portraits purporting to record the character or state of mind of a specific person but rather studies of a figurative type or expression, which Rembrandt also often incorporated on his religious scenes. More so than anything else, Rembrandt was interested in the distinctive features of old men and women. These tronies often featured a pensive expression. The act of thought is underscored by the figure's downturned or inward gaze and dramatized by diverse use of light and shadow. After 1633 Rembrandt also frequently portrayed his fiancee and since 1634 his wife Saskia Uylenburgh (1612-1642; Cat. 81-84). Rembrandt also made similar figure and type studies of people on the street - masterful sketches of va gabonds, beggars, travelling musicians, or an old woman baking pancakes. 20 He was strongly inspired in subject and style by the French etcher Jacques Callot (1592-1635), as

63

Fig.4 Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn The Hundred Guilder Print, ea. 1648 Etching, e ng raving, and drypoi nt, Japanese paper, 280 x 394 mm Amsterdam , Rijksmuseum inv. no. RP-P-08-602

Fig. 3 Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn The Death of the Virgin , 1639 Etching, drypoint on paper, state II, 392 x 313 mm National Gallery Prague inv. no. R 179578

21 On Rembrandt's treatment of light, see e.g. Hinterding 2014a. 22 Bevers 1991, p. 161. 23 NH 173.

64

well as the Netherlandish and German genre tradition. But in contrast to other artists, he does not caricature these characters and instead always depicts them with a visible respect for their humanity (Fig. 2). Throughout his whole career Rembrandt handled both religious and genre subjects, and by following them we may observe the development of his visual language. Three smaller etchings depicting scenes from Christ's childhood made in 1630-1631 are executed in a detailed, fine manner, corresponding stylistically to Rembrandt's precise brushwork in this period (Cat. 11, 14, 22). The general atmosphere of these scenes matches his early paintings. Rembrandt here prominently relies on light, putting it to sophisticated use and applying it to emphasise principal characters and important details, and also uses it to delicately model the space and complement the scene's overall atmosphere, evoking the presence of God. 21 The figures' vague costume recalls the early Christian period, and the viewer is thereby made present at a timeless miraculous occurrence but in a very serene and almost intimate rendition . Rembrandt depicts biblical scenes as symbolic events. Rembrandt's visual language gained more expression and force in the latter half of the 1630s (Cat. 91), and he reached artistic maturity toward the end of the decade. By then, he had already mastered etching technique with bravura, including multiple biting, which allowed him to achieve a wider range of dark tones, and probably also experimented with sulphur tint, the intermediate technique to aquatint, having presumably learned it from Segers' prints. 22 This is also when Rembrandt began working with drypoint. While etching consists in using a needle to draw in a layer of ground applied onto a copperplate that is afterwards submerged in acid to bite into the exposed metal, drypoint involves scratching directly into the plate's surface. Thi s results in a protruding ridge along the incision, known as a burr, which holds ink and creates a soft, velvety line producing an effect reminiscent of painting. Drypoint opened up new, wholly original possibilities for Rembrandt. The downside of the technique is that printing quickly destroys the burr, which means there are commonly as few as twenty or thirty good-quality impressions. Rembrandt's first major composition featuring drypoint is his sizeable Death of the Virgin from 1639 (Fig. 3). 23 His approach is still largely draughtman-like and sees Rembrandt superbly execute the spiritual realm filled with light using a fine, sketchy line, contrasting the more intricate and detailed hatching of the dark mundane world, and so express the scene's spiritual essence without undue affectation.

65

Fig. 6, 7 (Righ t) Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn, The Flight into Egypt: A Night Piece, 1651 Etching, dryp oi nt o n paper, state I, 127 x 110 mm A m st e rdam, Rijksmu seum inv. no. RP- P-0 8 - 104 Remb rand t Harmensz. va n Rij n The Flight into Egypt: A Night Piece, 1651 Et ching, d ry p o int on p aper, state VI , 128 x 11 0 m m Nat ional Ga ll ery Prague inv. no. R 143745

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Rembrandt's graphic art developed in two main directions over the course of his career: one more akin to drawing, the other to painting. The earliest notable successes in his painterly approach include his first nocturnal etching of The Annunciation to the Shepherds from 1634 (Cat. 75), and his chiaroscuro depictions of St Jerome in a Dark Chamber(Cat. 20) and A Student at a Table by Candlelight from 1642 (Cat. 19). One of his finest and most renowned works, the so-called Hundred Guilder Print, combines both of these orientations (Fig. 4; Cat. 122). 24 Rembrandt likely worked on it over several years and probably only completed it in 1648. This ambitious print depicting the miracles wrought by Christ in Matthew 19 is almost the size of a painting but is nevertheless not signed. In the Hundred Guilder Print Rembrandt combined his mastery of etching and drypoint and created a very complex image. Its left side is executed almost only in outline, while its right half creates the impression of a chiaroscuro painting. Due to this asymmetry the print has sometimes been considered incomplete.25 Still, its exceptional artistic value was highly prized already during Rembrandt's lifetime, and the sum which collectors were willing to offer also lent the artwork its name. 26

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Fig . 5 Re mbrandt Harm e nsz. va n Rijn St Jerome Reading in an Italian Landscape, ea. 1653 Etc h ing and drypo int o n Japanese paper, plate t o ne, state I, 260 x 209 mm Am sterdam , Ri jksmu se u m inv. no. RP- P-08-184

24 NH 239. 25 Houbraken 2014, p. 75. 26 Gersaint 1751, no. 75; see also Van den Bussche 1880. 27 See also White 1969, pp. 14-18; van Breda 1997; Hinterding 2014, pp. 154-157. 28 Documented in e.g. de Piles 1699, p. 434. 29 See White 1969, pp. 15, 19; Bevers 1991, p. 165. 30 NH 275. 31 For more on this topic, see Cat. London/ Amsterdam 2014; esp. Bikker-Krekeler 2014; Hinterding 2014; Schapelhouman 2014. 32 NH 276-281. 33 NH 283-286.

Rembrandt did not settle for technical experiments: in the 1640s he discovered the visual potential of various t ypes of support. Besides common European white paper, he began making impressions on thicker oatmeal paper and Japanese or Chinese paper, which tend to be beige or light-brow n to ye llowis h in colour and differ in structure and absorbency, enhancing the painterly effect of drypoint.27 He also achieved impressive results by printing his etchings on parchment and si lk. These materials were much more expensive than regular paper but enjoyed a following and appreciation among collectors. 28 Rembrandt would frequently print one state of a plate on different types of support, in order to vary the effect of the re sulting impression. His fondness of experiment notably intensified during the 1650s; he searched for alternative ways to attain novel visual effects. To further amplify the tonal palette and chiaroscuro of his works Rembrandt also used the so-called surface tone, which yie lded similar results to washing. 29 The technique involved applying a film of ink on the plate after it had been prepared for printing, meaning after the etched or engraved lines had been inked and the plate wiped clean . Surface tone deepens the shadows while attenuating the contrast between light and dark. Chiaroscuro impressions with velvety lines of drypoint enhance the work's painterly mood and create a very powerful atmosphere, especially when printed on oriental paper or parchment. Rembrandt demonstrated his consummate mastery of this combined technique in the 1650s, on religious images such as his St Jerome Reading in an Italian Landscape from ea. 1653 (Fig. 5),30 as well as on other landscapes, portraits, and nudes. Rembrandt's approach was highly innovative, each work meant for him a search for new means of artistic expression. That is why he continued to produce linear etchings even while developing his painterly technique. From the late 1640s his drawings and prints are characterised by an increased degree of expressiveness and simplification, limited to capturing the principal forms and sparse details. This coarser drawing style becomes even more salient after 1651, which corresponds to Rembrandt's turn in painting toward more expressive and open brushwork. 31 The method predominates on Rembrandt's etchings of the life of Christ from 1654,32 or on his depictions of the Passion from the same year. 33

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Fig.8 Re m bra ndt Ha rm ensz. va n Rijn The Three Crosses, 1653 Dry p oint o n pa p er, state IV, 38 5 x 450 mm Colog n e, Wallraf- RichartzMuseum & Fo ndation Corboud, Graphische Sa mml ung inv. no. 1938/064

Rembrandt was tireless in his search for new visual solutions but only rare ly anticipated new prints in preparatory drawings; instead he drew directly onto the plate. This is why Rembrandt frequently modified his compositions in his later period, with some occuring in as many as six or even more authorial states (i.e., stages of completion), such as his Flight into Egypt: A Night Piece from 1651 (Fig. 6, Cat. 124).34 In the first state, the sketched figures are depicted in a bright light, a lantern in Joseph's hand and the moon illuminate other section of the scene and not much of the remaining composition is left in the dark. Rembrandt kept chang ing the lighting in the fo llowing six states, until he achieved an almost entirely obscured image, with nothing but the lantern dimly illuminating the figure of Joseph, the head of the donkey and Mary's cloak. As Rembrandt gained more experience with drypoint, he was led to ground-breaking ex·periments with the technique. The bulk of Rembrandt's masterworks also includes compositions executed on ly in drypoint, especially his monumental Three Crosses from 1653 (Fig. 8 ; Cat. 123), and Ecce Homo from 1655.35 This was the first time in history a composition of this size had been made exclusively in this technique. In both cases Rembrandt significantly reworked the plates after producing a certain number of impressions, doubtless because the burr has worn away, leading to a stark change in the work's final effect. In the first state of The Three Crosses, Rembrandt depicted a traditional crucifixion scene with generous staffage, giving an important role to the stream of light falling on Christ and the scene's centre and leaving the rest covered in darkness. The second state shows a partial loss of the burr due to wear of the plate, and Rembrandt solved this issue in the third state by renewing some of the darker sections; this was also the state that Rembrandt signed. He reworked the composition substantially in the fourth state, replacing most of the characters and covering the whole plate with a dense network of parallel hatching representing the interplay of light and darkness. A symbolic meaning has now come to prevail over historical description; most of the figures besides Christ are plunged in the darkness crossed by stark flashes of light. The impact of the scene is amplified even further by its being printed on oriental paper and parchment.

68

L-=------------.,-..,........t.----- ·- .-----Fig.9 Rembrandt Ha rmensz. van Rijn Clump of Trees with a Vista , 1652 Drypoint on paper, state II, 124 x 211 mm Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum inv. no. RP-P-OB-455

34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43

44

NH 262. NH 274; NH 290. E.g. NH 198-203. NH 248-257. On this etching, see Hinterding 2014, p.154. See in detail Dickey 2004; recently Dickey 2019. Sandrart 1675; de Piles 1699, p. 434. See also Cat. Amsterdam 2019. See in detail Wieseman 2014. On the problematic of Rembrandt's preparatory drawings for etchings, see Royalton-Kisch 2000. NH 238, Amsterdam, Six Collection, Ben 767, 768.

Rembrandt also achieved fascinating results with drypoint on his landscapes. While he did not treat the subject very often in painting, he devoted it a good deal of attention in drawing and etching. In the 1640s he created a number of detailed vistas in the environs of Amsterdam, featuring miniature figures and genre motifs engaging the viewer's attention. 36 Rembrandt gradually abandoned such details on his landscapes and from the 1650s on used drypoint in certain sections of his scenes, investing views of the ordinary countryside and rural houses with a dream-like quality.37 In the end of his career, he created an entire landscape composition in drypoint (Fig. 9, Cat.121). In the simplified style required by this technique, Rembrandt executed a remarkable view of a grove by a lake, achieving a timeless expression almost indistinguishable from the art of the twentieth century. 38 Rembrandt was already appraised and demanded as an excellent portraitist at his day an age. 39 This was also the case with Rembrandt's etchings, highly esteemed by his earliest biographers Joachim von Sandra rt and Roger de Piles, who prized his portraits for their liveliness and sense of animation. 40 Rembrandt's prints are mostly of his friends and relatives, as well as some customers.41 Much like the rest of Rembrandt's art, these portraits are usually not very flattering. The figures are done very faithfully, without embellishment or disguise of imperfections. The v iewer needs a certain time to get accustomed to Rembrandt's uncompromising attitude, and only afterwards wil l he recognise the wo rks' human sens itiv ity and technical finesse. This becomes all the more striking when compared to portraiture then, typified by neat and elegant paintings a la Anthon is van Dyck (1599-1641), whose legacy dominated Amsterdam 's portrait art in the latter half of the seventeenth century. 42 Nevertheless, we know Rembrandt would often make preparatory drawings for his etched portrait commissions and sometimes even introduce changes, likel y upon the customer's request. 43 For instance, he rejected the first variant of a portrait of his friend and collector Jan Six from 1647, which we only know in drawing and which features the subject in a relaxed pose with a dog by his side, in favour of a compos ition much more intellectual in tone that depicts Six reading (Fig. 9, p. 43).44 The masterful execution of chiaroscuro has made this portrait a painting in etching, admired by many.

69

45 46 47 48

49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58

Rembrandt's artistic intransigence is also evident from his nudes, especially his early wo rk, which as we have mentioned is characterised by increased attention to detail, such as his Diana at the Bath from c. 1631 (Cat. 72), or his etching of Adam and Eve made seven years later.4s It is also particularly noticeable on his three male nudes from 1646, created during a life drawing session with his pupils (Cat. 94-96). 46 Rembrandt returned to the nude again in the late 1650s with a series of wome n, now decisively relying on chiaroscuro ; he disrupts the figures ' silhouette and through his painterly approach adds a timelessness and monumentality to the human body such as never before seen on his nudes. The climax of this tendency are his prints of a Woman Bathing Her Feet at a Brook and an elegant female nude lying in the shade traditionally known as La Negresse couchee (Fig. 10, Cat. 126, 127).47 Through an absence of idealisation in his nudes, Rembrandt already invited criticism in the seventeenth century; some of his Classically-minded audience reproached him with bad drawing technique, a lack of interest in Ancient Roman and Italian examples and frankl y the ugliness of his plebeian models and subjects.48 Rembrandt also earned similar condemnations with certain modern art historians. 49 However, the character of his nudes fully accords with the general tenor of his art, whose.purpose has always been to depict reality and life as they are. Rembrandt's nudes are not ideally proportioned, instead they are figures that appeal to us by their imperfection, simple humanity and unobtrusive beauty. Few artists have attended to human fragility as keenly as Rembrandt.

NH 89, 163. NH 232-234. NH 308, 309. Pels 1681, pp. 35-36; cited by Barbara Welzel, in: Cat. Berlin/ Amsterdam/London 1991, p. 182; see also Sluijter 1998; or Sluijter 2001, p. 37, for citations of the well-known passages from Houbraken 1718- 1721, pp. 261-262. E.g. Clark 1956, p. 325. NH 247. NH 174. NH 215. The French Bed, from 1646, or The Mo nk in the Cornfield, NH 230, 231. NH 52, 79. Cf. Bartilla 2003, pp. 7- 8. NH 115, 157, 161, 162, 177, 261. See Hinterding 2008, p. 604. The first of these was Medea from 1648, created for the frontispiece of Jan Six's play Medea, NH 241; afterwards, four illustrations for a book by Menasseh Ben Israel titled Piedra Gloriosa de la estatua de Nebuchadnesar from 1655, NH 288; and finally a portrait of the doctor Jan Anton ides van der Linden from 1665, NH 314, commissioned for the frontispiece of a posthumous edition of his adaptation of the writings of Hippocrates. Rembrandt made it after a painting, but the customers were dissatisfied with the result and ultimately did not use the portrait.

made several etchings that almost look like loose pages from a sketchbook: these more or less randomly present various motifs, images of women, his own face, and human figures, strewn across the page in different directions.s6 It is not c lear if all of these studies were printed and sold by Rembrandt himself or by the plates' heirs after his death.s7 In any eve nt, the fact that these sketches had market value proved customers also appreciated this type of artwork and that a substantial turn had occurred in the understanding of graphic art among connoisseurs. Some traditional graphic genres, such as extensive series on religious or al legorica l subjects, book illustrations or title pages, which required a high print run and were therefore engraved, did not suit Rembrandt's artistic temperament. He only accepted such commissions occasionally, and even then, he would execute them in the technique he was comfortab le with the most - etching.s8 This shows that Rembrandt was a creative rather than a reproductive artist by nature, who primarily saw etching as a form of artistic expression, albeit of course with a view to financial profit. Studying Rembrandt's prints, like his drawings, yie lds fascinating insight into the master's creative process. It uncove rs Rembrandt's incredible artistic potential, zeal, and remarkable individual ity, coupled with a faithfulness to one's own artistic convictions. And also - patience and perseverance, for etching is a difficult technique that requires a good deal of time and effort until one's becomes proficient with biting, understands the margins of correction and masters its expressive potential. Unlike w ith drawing and painting, the result of the work is not immediately visib le and the process holds an element of suspense and, for the layman, even a certain alchemy. Given the vast scope of Rembrandt's graphic oeuvre, the sheer vo lum e of states corrections, that is - of his individual compositions, and the care he devoted to each of his impressions, we cannot but marvel at the immense amount of energy Rembrandt showed in printmaking. To Rembrandt, etching was a self-standing form of expression, equal to painting in spite of its peculiarities. It is only together that drawing, painting, and etching form the full breadth of Rembrandt's artistic personality.

Fig.10 Rembra ndt Harmensz. van Rijn Reclining Female Nude (La Negresse couchee), 1658 Etching, drypoint on paper, state IV, 81 x 158 m m Nationa l Ga llery Prag ue inv. no. R 143687

Some of Rembrandt's graphic art also treats subjects he did not treat in painting, such as sti ll lifes (The She/1), so historici sing moral allegory (Death Appearing to a Wedded Couple) ,51 and more broadly also the peasant genre (The Hog),s2 or the abovementioned landscapes. Some of his etchings also feature very explicit erotic sceness3 or images of urination,s4 which were motifs commonly found on contemporary prints, albeit Rembrandt only used them rarely in painting - his Abduction of Ganymede from 1635 currently at the Gemaldegalerie in Dresden is one such example.ss Especiall y unique in their period we re Rembrandt's etched sketches (Cat. 92-93). In fact, it is difficult to see how these even fit the medium of etching - a sketch as an unfinished outline forerunning the final artwork was common in drawing and painting . Prints, be it of engravings or etchings, are likewise usually preceded by a preparatory drawing. Nevertheless, Rembrandt

70

71

l

Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn A Scholar in His Study ('Faust'), ea. 1652 Etching, engraving, and drypoint on paper, 210 x 160 mm (plate) Budapest, Szepmuveszeti Muzeum, inv. no. 31602 Provenance: Elischer Collection Reference: B 270; NH 270: I/VII Selected bibliography: Leendertz 1921; Van de Waal 1964; White 1969, pp. 14, 152, 170; Carstensen & Henningsen 1988; Cat. Berlin/Amsterdam/London 1991a, no. 33; Vries 1998; Cat. Amsterdam/London 2000, no. 69; Cat. Boston/Chicago 2003, no. 150; Hinterding 2008, no. 198; Cat. Kain 2019, no. l

This etching portrays a m ystical, enigmatic occurrence. A scholar dressed in oriental or historical costume has been visited in his study by an apparition. He looks at a glowing disc with three concentric rings and cryptic inscriptions hovering in front of the window. The circle itself is part of a mysterious spiritual being showing the scholar its reflection in a mirror. Objects placed throughout the study illustrate the scholar's fields of interest: a large celestial globe stands in the right foreground , with stacks of books behind it, a reading stand on the desk, and a skull visib le in the back left. The work became known as a depiction of the legendary alchemist Faust, w ho sold his soul to the Devil in exchange for unlimited knowledge. However, the name is not original and is only documented since the eighteenth century.' Nevertheless, it was also accepted by the author of the first printed catalogue raisonne of Rembrandt's prints, Edme Franc;ois Gersaint, and remains generally known as such until today. 2 The connection with Faust became even more entrenched when Johann Wolfgang Goethe, a great admirer of Rembrandt, ordered a copy of this print for the frontispiece of the 1790 edition of his play Faust. 3 The Faust legend was widely popular among the people, and it had been put to literary form by Christopher Marlowe in the sixteenth century - the Dutch version of his play, titled Dr Faustus, was staged in Amsterdam during Rembrandt's lifetime and may have therefore inspired the present etching .• However, the composition lacks a Devil figure or another typical Faust motif. 5 The ambiguous subject of the etching has led to numerous interpretations. 0 Unfortunately, the circumstances of the work's creation, which could provide some guidance on whether Rembrandt made it from his own inspiration or on commission, are unknown. The oldest reference to the etching dates to 1679 and can be found in the estate inventory of Clement de Jong he, an art dealer from Amsterdam who owned a sizeable collection of Rembrandt's prints and copperplates; the etching is listed here as' Practisierende Alchemist' (Alchemist at Work).' De Jonghe knew Rembrandt personally, wh ich is why some scholars have accepted th is identification as accurate. 8 However, Rembrandt's image differs from typical seventeenth-century alchemical iconography. Researches have therefore focused the ir attention on the words inscribed in the glowing circ le: "INRI I + ADAM+ TL. + DAGERAM + I + AMRTET + ALGAR + ALGA s TNA ++". The same text

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Prologue: The Republic of Knowledg e

has been found on magical amulets.9 Some interpretations read the etching in the context of the Kabba lah and Remb ra ndt's contact with Jewish scholars in Amsterdam. 10 Others note its resemblance with the iconographic portrayal of certain scholars, such as Martin Luther, and in this respect H. van de Waal understands the image as a depiction of Faustus Socinus (1539-1604), the founder of the anti-Trinitarian sect that found refuge in the Northern Netherlands." This would explain why the etching has been associated with a 'Faust', though by confusion of the alchemist with the religious reformer. Most recently, the scene has been interpreted by Lyckle de Vries as a depiction of several verses from Paul 's First Epistle to the Corinthians (13, 12) and an allegory of faith .12 He expla ins the vision with a shining d isc inscribed with Christ's monogram INRI (/esus Nazarenus Rex tudaeorum) as divine knowledge, wh ich human beings cannot fathom but merely see indirectly, in a sort of distorted mirror image. The apparition warns the scholar he cannot attain God by reason but on ly through faith. Rembrandt's etching is based on a long visual tra dition of portraying church fathers , and later scholars, phi losophers, and astronomers. The gloomy study is equipped with all of a learned man's customary attributes.13 Rembrandt treated the subject numerous times, e.g. in his Prague Scholar from 1634 (Cat. 46), or his etching of Saint Jerome in a Dark Chamber fcom 1642 (Cat. 20). Light always plays an important symbolic and expressive function in these images. Stylistic considerations have led to Faust being dated to around 1652. The rendering fully corresponds to Rembrandt's late graphic art: a scholar surrounded by objects in the foreground drawn in a qu ick, controlled manner largely with para llel hatching. The scene's foreground starkly contrasts with the background, done with a dense network of crosshatching, wh ich al lowed Rembrandt to render subtle transitions of shadow in diverse tones. The d rypo int detai ls deepen the chiaroscuro and comp lement the picture's overall atmosphere. Rembrandt was satisfied with the work in its first state, and all other co rrections have been proven inauthentic.14 The exhibit is a pristine impression of the first state. Rembrandt also printed the etching on Japanese paper and oatmeal paper, in order to intensify the ch iaroscuro effect.

BK

2

3 4 5 6 7 8

9 10 11 12 13 14

Van Gelder & Van Gelder-Schrijver 1938, p. 11, in a listing of the collection of Rembrandt expert Valerius Rover from 1731, as item no. 19: 'Doctor Faustus'. Gersaint 1751, no. 250, "Fautrieus. Portrait d'un Philosophe ou Medecin, connu en Hollande sous le nom de Docteur Fautrieus". According to the author, the objects in the room suggest the scholar is a student of the Kabbalah. Barbara Welzel, in: Cat. Berlin/ Amsterdam/London 1991a, no. 33. Leendertz 1921. See Wegner1962. Interpretations prior to 1964 are overviewed in Van de Waal 1964. De Hoop Scheffer & Boon 1971, no. 3. E.g. Bojanowski 1938; more recently, Barbara Welzel, in: Cat. Berlin/ Amsterdam/London 1991a, no. 33. Rotermund 1957. Carstensen & Henningsen 1988; Grothues 1992. Van de Waal 1964. Vries 1998. Van de Waal 1964. See NH 270.

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2

Anonymous Master from Amsterdam (?) ca.1640 Faust Between an Angel and the Devil Oil on oak panel, 49 x 60.5 cm Regional Art Gallery in Liberec, inv. no. O 1261 Provenance: 1807 Count Christian Clam - Gallas; 1807- 1912 on loan to the Picture Gallery of the Society of Patriotic Friends of the Arts in Bohemia ; coll. Count Clam-Gallas at Grabstejn Castle; Regional Art Gallery in Liberec Selected bibliography: Bergner 1912, p. 108, no. 384 (based on an unpreserved monogram HB, proposed attribution to H. Bogaert); Cat. Liberec 1995, p. 8, no. l ; Cat. K61n 2019, no. 2

Faust is a relatively uncommon theme in the Dutch painting tradition. It takes inspiration from a play by Shakespeare's contemporary Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593), The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus from 1591-1592, which gained an immense following almost immediately after its publication . It became part and parcel of every English theatre company's repertoire, reached the European continent soon thereafter and assumed popular form . The play arrived in the Netherlands before the mid-seventeenth century, at a time when local actors were joining English theatre troupes, variuosly emending Marlowe's play, simplifying it, and investing it with elements of comedy in popularised adaptations.' It treats of the demonic scholar Faust, who wished to have all the knowledge in the world. The Devil Mephistopheles promised it to him if Faust vowed to forfeit his soul to Hell twenty years later. Faust makes an agreement with Mephistopheles and signs it with his own blood. The moment when the demon ic contract expires and Faust's soul is taken to Hell is among the final scenes of Marlowe's play and is also visualised in the present painting in Liberec. The painter arranged the composition in the form of a gloomy theatrical stage set, with a drapery or curtain pulled to the left. The scene takes place in Faust's study, with books laid out on the table and floor and a g lobe in the table's background. Behind the table, a brightly illuminated angel in a white robe appears holding a Bible, urging Faust to do his penance. Faust sits by the table with an anxious look and his arms thrown up in a gesture of shock. He turns to Mephistopheles, who sits on a heap of volumes in the foreground . A stamped deed can be seen lying on the floor, presumably Faust's contract with the Devil. Mephistopheles resembles a satyr, sporting a pair of goat's legs, pointed ears, a protruding chin, and a prominent nose. He similarly holds an open book in his left hand and reads from it through a pince-nez. One of Mephistopheles' attendants emerges from behind Faust. With his hand pointing upwards at a pendulum clock, he indicates that m idnight impends and that the contract is about to end. He appears to mock the scholar with a widemouthed grimace. Mephistopheles' companions, two elders with conspicuous noses and a concentrated

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expression, each measure the time, one on a pocket watch and the other with an hourglass. The painting is done with thin brushwork in a nearly monochrome palette of ochre and grey tones, complemented by accents of red in Faust's cloak, of white in the angel 's gown, and of gold in the decor of the brocade tablecloth. The painter chose to highlight the contrasting moods of the two ma in figural groups - the composed expression of the angel, the almost comically frightened face of Faust and the schadenfreude mimics and gestures of the hellspawn. Good and evil, piety and blasphemy are presented here in a popular, almost satirical fashion . The unusual subject only had a limited response within Dutch art, despite the fact that Marlowe's p lay was well-known in the Northern Netherlands. A rare work in this respect is the painting of Faust Selling His Soul to the Devil, attributed to Jan Jansz. Buesem (active 1616-1668). 2 Later, around 1650, a similar motif was treated by Rembrandt, who was likewise conversant with the literary and dramatic work of English authors. His etching (cf. Bartsch, B 270) portrays a scholar tempted by the power of magic. 3 We also know of Jan Lievens ' etching of Faust in His Study (cf. Bartsch, B 146, as Rembrandt), Adriaen Matham's drawing Faust jn His Study (Amsterdam, Rijksprentenkabinett), and an engraving by Christoffel van Sichem titled Dr Faustus and Mephistopheles View the World. The subject was also very close to Pieter Quast (Amsterdam 1606 - Amsterdam 1647), who was a keen follower of theatre and painted several works of dramatic subjects in the second quarter of the seventeenth century.• We may infer that Quast was rather familiar with Marlowe's play from his drawing of Faust, Surrounded by Demons (Fig. 2.l), inscribed "Faustus, Faustus tempus est" on the verso.5 In his drawings and some of his paintings Quast was fond of caricaturing his figures, rendering them with elongated or pear-shaped noses, with projecting chins or grimacing with their mouths open, not unlike the figures in the Liberec painting - such as in (his painting) of a Surgeon Attending to a Man's Head (Fig. 2.2). Though certain indications suggest a relationship between the present painting and Quast's drawn and painted oeuvre, we are unable to compare it directly with some of his associated artworks.• HS

2

3

4

5 6

E. F. Kossmann, Das niederliindische Faustspiel des 17. Jahrhundert, Den Haag 1910, (Reissue: https://dbnl .org/ tekst/kossoo4niedo1_ 01/index.php, E. F. Kossmann 2011), pp. 2, 10- 12, cites the playwright and actor Florise Groena (t 1689), who owned a manuscript of Faust before the mid-17th century, which later reached the hands of other dramatists from his estate. Groen likely learned of the play from the young actor Jan Baptist Fomenburgh (* ea. 1620), who had engagements in English theatre companies. Fomenburgh was the son of flower and fruit painter Jan Baptist van Fomenburgh (active 1629- 1640 in The Hague); see also Leendertz 1921, pp. 132- 148. Auction by Sotheby's, New York 6 Sep 2011, lot 61; the painting originally attributed to Hendrick Bogaert is probably identical with a picture of the same subject and size listed as the work of Leonhard Bramer (Vienna, Dorotheum, 27 Apr 1910). The conventional name of the etching, Faust, is ahistorical. It was first used in the 18th century, cf. Behling 1964, pp. 49- 77. We know of two paintings depicting Brutus as the court jester before Tarquinius after a play by Pieter C. Hooft from 1643 (both Amsterdam, Toneelmuseum), and other, unpreserved paintings featuring theatrical subjects. Parallel figure types, their grimaces and gestures feature especially in Quast's paintings and caricature drawings. See Wegner 1962, pp. 26- 29. The well-informed scholars Fred G. Meijer (Amsterdam) and Adriaan Waiboer (Dublin, National Gallery of Ireland) instead place the author of the painting among the circle from Haarlem and in close relation with the art of Willem de Poorter (1607/8-1649 or later). I hereby thank both scholars for kindly informing me of this in personal correspondence from February and March 2019.

2.1. Pieter Jansz. Quast Faust, Surrounded by Demons Silverpoint on parchment, 267 x 363 mm Frankfurt, Goethe-Museum inv. no. 111-13321 2.2 Pieter Jansz. Quast Surgeon Attending to a Man's Head Oil on panel, 43.5 x 28 .3 cm Private Collection

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3

Pieter Hermansz. Verelst ea. 1618 Dordreeht - ea. 1678 Dordreeht? The Schoolmaster and His Pupils, ea. 1650 Oil on panel, 42 x 34 cm The Kremer Collection Provenance: Private collection, France; Johnny van Haften, London ; acquired therefrom by the current owner in 1997 Selected bibliography: Cat. Kremer Collection 2002, no. 38; Cat. K61n / Kassel/Haarlem 2008, no. 45; Aescht 2015, pp. 95-98; Cat. Koln 2019, no. 3

The Schoolmaster and His Pupils by Pieter Hermansz. Verelst from Dordrecht presents the subject of education and erudition in the seventeenth-century Netherlands from a somewhat different angle than the other paintings of scholars discussed in this catalogue. Here too the composition centres on an elder immersed in thought, engrossed by the world of his mind and deeply focused on sharpening a pen, but the lively commotion around the man, replete with numerous revealing details, tells a whole different story. The white-bearded teacher in an old-fashioned, tattered gown sits in a spotlight in the centre of the composition but is totally oblivious of the events around him. A group of boys clearly grin at him from behind, with a somewhat older classmate laying out an open notebook on the lectern in front of the frail schoolmaster for inspection and another waiting for his turn. In the left background, we see a group of pupils engag ing in hearty conversation, to the right are occupied boys attending to their studies. The centre of the composition features a view through the door, where we see a woman attempting to reassure a young ch ild clearly unenthusiastic about joining the class. Owing especially to Verelst's brilliant wo rk with light and coloured tones, the entire scene creates an illusion of division into two planes. The events in the background, beautifully illustrating the day-to-day activities in a schoolroom,' are rendered w ith a subdued palette in order to accent the main scene. The latter is done very clearly and down to the minutest detail, with live ly accents of colour, such as the red in the cloak of the boy demanding the teacher's attention or in the eider's beret. A plethora of narrative details provide further indications of the painting's ironic message. The old man in the painting is neither a genuine scholar nor the most talented of teachers, as the knot of boys jeering at him from behind his back suggests. The man likely deserves nothing but ridicule, for instead of attending to honing his student's abilities, he appears to be intensely occupied with sharpening a quill. The diligent student, who had come to show him the results of his study, has nothing left to do but give us an insinuating look. The pince-nez that we see the old teacher adjusting on his nose indicates he is short-sighted not just literally but also figuratively, as it is a typical attribute of the foolish pedagogue.'

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Prologue: The Republic of Knowledge

Further small details, such as knucklebones, a spinning top, and a ferule on the schoolmaster's table, complete the ironic mood of the scene 3 and advert to a lack of discipline in class, wh ich the teach er is unable to enforce. The lantern on the table to the eider's left is extinguished, much like the zest and thirst for knowledge of most of the pupils and the teacher himself.• We find the satirical motif of a witless teacher as early as in the mid-sixteenth century. Such early examples, which defin itely influenced the ensu ing generations of artists, for instance Jan Miense Molenaer (1610/11-1668), include engraving by the Flemish master Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1525/30-1569) titled The Ass in the School, 5 perhaps a depiction of an even more unruly classroom than Verelst's. Nevertheless, it was only thanks to Haarlem's painter Molenaer and especially to the great masters of genre painting Ad ria en (1610-1685) and Isaack van Ostade (1621-1649) that this type of schoolroom scene gained major popularity. 6 Verelst's humorous but instructive image, however, does not only build on the narratively rich compositions produced by the abovementioned genre masters but also evidently cites the work of the doyen of Leiden miniature painting Gerrit Dou (1613-1675). Dou's influence is especially manifes.t in th e figure of the schoolmaster, who devotes all his attention to his own handiwork - cutting a pen. The figure of an elder preparing his writing tools is relatively abundant in Dou 's art, 7 much like his typical head covering - a red beret. We find this beret perched on many of Dou's teachers and scholars (Fig. 3.1), 8 but it was also avidly used by Rembrandt in many of his self-portraits.9 Vere lst's delicate brushwork, capturing the individ ual elements of the composition in minute detail, likewise recalls the art of the so-called Leiden fijnschilders. Howeve r, we possess no evidence of his training w ith the latter and so Vere lst must here be mainly following Dou. Besides genre scenes inspired by the work of the founder of Leiden miniature painting, Verelst's oeuvre also includes history paintings a la Rembrandt and stil l lifes. In all likelihood, Pieter Hermansz. Verelst did not pursue art for his entire life - he is documented as an apprentice brewer in Flanders in 1671.10 LN

3.1

Gerrit Dou The Schoolmaster, 1645 Oil on panel, 27 x 19.4 cm Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum inv. no. 33

The activities shown here include writing on a board, reading books, as well as a student hanging his school bag on the classroom wall. 2 Teachers in classrooms of this sort were typically not the greatest men of culture, see Cat. Kremer Collection 2002. 3 The ferule is a clear reference to discipline as the foundation of education, but many images of schoolrooms are fond of parodying the pupils' and teachers' discipline and show precisely the opposite, like in the present case; see Schama 1987, pp. 558-559. 4 See Ripa 1618 (1644 Dutch edition). 5 Johann Theodor de Bry, after Pieter van der Heyden, after Pieter Bruegel, The Ass in the School, 1596, engraving on paper, 9.4 x 10.1 cm, inv. no. RP-P-BI-5233, Rijksmuseum Amsterdam. 6 Cat. Washington/Amsterdam 1996, p. 231. 7 E.g. Gerrit Dou, Old Man Cutting his Pen, 1671, oil on panel, 32 x 25 cm, inv. no. 1709, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Gemiildegalerie Alte Meister; or Gerrit Dou, An Evening School, ea. 1655-57, oil on panel, 25.4 x 22.9 cm, inv. no. 40.64, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. 8 E.g. Gerrit Dou, The Schoolmaster, 1645, oil on panel, 27 x 19.4 cm, inv. no. 33, Fitzwilliam Museum Cambridge. 9 E.g. Rembrandt, Self -Portrait at the Age of 34, 1640, oil on panel, 91 x 75 cm, inv. no. NG672, The National Gallery London. 10 Cat. Kremer Collection 2002.

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Jan Davidsz. de Heern 1606 Utrecht - 1684 Antwerp Still Life with Books and a Skull (Vanitas}, 1629 Oil on panel, 26 x 35 cm signed left on table edge: JO [conjoined) de Heern F: Ao 7629 Regional Art Gallery in Liberec, inv. no. 0 69 Provenance: before 1872 coll. Count Stadio n-Tannhausen; 1872-1910 coll. Heinrich Liebieg, Liberec; 1910 donated by Heinrich Liebieg to the City of Liberec; 1956 Regional Art Gallery in Liberec Selected bibliography: Cat. Frankfurt 1994, p. 212, no. 39; Cat. Liberec 1995, p. 32, no. 13; Meijer 2016, I., pp. 55-57, II., pp. 23-24, no. A 016; Cat. Koln 2019, no. 4

The wooden table in the centre of his painting carries an assortment of books, a leather bag, an armour piece, and a quill with an inkwell on some sheets of paper in the foreground. The group of items is crowned by a skull. A document inscribed VANITAS VAN/TATIS hangs on the wall in the background. The lighting is somewhat unusual: the painter placed a wooden screen on the left, allowing light into the space from above. It illuminates the front wall and casts the screen's shadow on it while leaving the objects on the table fully revealed . The fine, smooth painting is executed with thin brushwork in a browngrey monochrome palette with richly graduated tones. The ostensibly random motley of objects is actually a well thought-through combination of geometric relationships based on the Golden ratio. The painting has been treated in detail in an admirable monograph on Jan Davisz. de Heern by Fred G. Meijer.1 Meijer writes that De Heern was initially active in his hometown, where he was chiefly influenced by the art of Balthasarvan der Ast, especially his fruit still lifes. De Heern painted several such works even after he moved to Leiden with his parents in 1625. However, he soon opted for a different subject, focusing on painted still lifes composed of books, documents, writing tools, and supplemented by various objects. In 1628-1629 he created a series of small-format still lifes, meticulously portraying books and paperwork freely strewn across the table. De Heern was intimately familiar with books, having seen and perhaps even read many in the workshop of his stepfather Johan Jacob Coornhert. 2 Informed by his experience from his stepfather's shop, he produced convincing images of worn volumes, their tattered bindings and warped pages. 3 De Heern would place the individual motifs in complex relations, at one t ime painting a globe or a map among the books, at other times a violin or lute. In parallel with these works, he also created several figurative paintings that likewise feature books and documents carelessly laid out on the tab le, e.g. his Interior with a Young Man Seated at a Table from 1628 (Fig. 4.1), which is actually a self-portrait.• The somewhat inelegant execution of the figure likely led him away from figurative art and instead encouraged him fully to concentrate on object painting. A group of seven currently known of De Heem's book stil l lifes form a standa lone enclave within his oeuvre. It begins with the Still Life with Books and a Globe from 1628 (Fig. 4.2), where an assortment of volumes is depicted from a higher angle

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and the stream of light - like on the Liberec painting - is interrupted by a screen, with light falling on the back wall and outlining the shadows of the window frames. The liberec painting, post-dating it by a year, is in a certain respect the culmination of this artistic project. The whole series reflects a broader interest in the subject than shown earlier by De Heem's predecessors or concurrently and shortly later by his contemporaries. 5 In Leiden, De Heern may have met Rembrandt, his generational peer, who had at that time taken up subjects of a similar nature.6 Leiden was a lively, attractive locality and a hub for artists, scholars, professors, and students. This was partly due to the renowned Calvinist university, founded in 1575 by William of Orange. University life also influenced Leiden's art scene. The increased interest in bookish themes may have been spurred by the commissions of particular scholars. In the Liberec pa inting, this is suggested by the appearance of books and documents but also by the use of the written word within the image. In fact, the word is what here underscores the significance of the composition as a whole. The line VANITAS VAN/TATIS is a reference to the b iblical quote "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity!" (Ecc 1:2) and in the university setting also to the warning issued in "The Lord knoweth the thoughts of man, that they are vanity:• (Ps 94:11). The name Heinsius adverts to the prominent Leiden philologist and university libr.arian Daniel Heinsius (1580-1655), whose work often addressed the subjects of life and death. 7 However, we are unable to document any connection between the admired scholar and the painting in Liberec. But we may in turn ask: might the painting have been commissioned by one of Heinsius' disciples, as was customary in the period? Did De Heern himself perhaps admire the famous scholar and memorialize him in the artwork? Did Heinsius wish to have such a painting at home? In any case, the painting attests to the artist's close ties with the intellectual milieu of Leiden and its world-famous university, and so provides a novel angle at De Heem's artistic production in his hometown. De Heem's spell in Leiden was not very long and, like Rembrandt, he left the Calvinist stronghold in 1631. Wh ile Rembrandt embarked for Amsterdam, De Heern moved to the Catholic city of Antwerp, where he would in due course unfold an illustrious career as a celebrated nature and flower painter, whose reputation has persisted to this day.

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Meijer 2016, I, pp. 56- 57. Cat. Utrecht/Braunschweig 1991, p. 56. Meijer 2016, I, pp. 55 - 58, II, no. A 009 - Ao16. Ibid., pp. 51 & 58 cites other views of interiors with figures sitting by a table covered in books from 1628/29. Ibid., pp. 53-54, cites David Bailly and Jacques de Gheyn II among his predecessors and also refers to the sizeable Still Life with Books, 1628/31 (Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum), attributed to Jan Lievens. For example, Rembrandt treats lighting and the subject of books in his paintings Musical Company, 1626 (Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum), and The Money Changer, 1627 (Berlin, Staatliche Museen, Gemlildegalerie ). Heinsius addressed the theme of death in 1621 in a poem titled De contemptu mortis as well as in his extensive Orationes, published over 1606- 1642, where he used the Vanitas motto; also in Orationes, Pars Tertia, printed in Leiden by the publisher Isaac Elsevier in 1627, two years prior to the creation of Heem's painting in Liberec.

4.1 Jan Davidsz. de Heern Interior with a Young Man Seated at a Table, 1628 Oil on panel, 60 x 81 cm Oxford, Ashmolean Museum inv. no. WA1940.2.34 4.2 Jan Davidsz. de Heern Still Life with Books and Globe, 1628 Oil on panel, 28.1 x 33.3 c m The Kremer Collection

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Seventeenth-Century Master from Leiden I Jan Lievens? Still Life with a Violin, Book, and a Skull - Vanitas, 1627 Oil on panel, 59 x 96 cm dated centre left 7627 Heino, Museum de Fundatie, Kasteel het Nijenhuis, inv. no. 2150 Provenance: possibly coll. Nicolas Sohier, Amsterdam, inventory from 9 Sep 1642, no. 13; private collection, United Kingdom ; 1933 Goudstikker, Amsterdam; Hannema-de Stuers Fundatie, Kasteel het Nijenhuis Selected bibliography: Schnackenburg 2004 (Jan Lievens); Cat. Zwolle 2005 (anonymous); Wallert 2006 (Leiden school); Schnackenburg 2016, no. 45 (Jan Lievens); Cat. Koln 2019, no. 5

Still Life with a Violin, Book, and a Skull is an exemplary Vanitas painting, recalling the familiar saying Vanitas vanitatum et omnia vanitas.' At the centre of the tonally subdued compos ition, the artist heaped a pile of books, a cu irass, leather pouches and open scores of music with a vio lin, adverting to the fleeting nature of music, which must unavoidably die away. The painting features additional attributes typical of the genre on the right - an hourglass measuring time, a skull on a wooden stand, and an extinguished cand le. The composition is placed in a neutral interior reminiscent of a stone cell, underlining the painting 's pensive and sombre atmosphere and med itative effect of light. The still life, done w ith energetic brushwork, is unsigned and inscribed with the date 1627 on the left - a period when similar themes enjoyed a great following. Images cluttered w ith books were especially popular among artists resident in the university t own of Leiden, w ith the subject pioneered by Jacques de Gehyn II (1565-1629).2 Another prominent artist with a decisive influence on the development of book still lifes was the sti ll- life specialist Jan Davidsz. de Heern (1606-1684), as reflected for example in his Still Life with Books and a Skull - Vanitas from 1629 (Cat. 4). 3 In the past, Still Life with a Violin, Book, and a Skull has been attributed to both Rembrandt and his Leiden colleague Jan Lievens, perhaps also because the painting 's date places it in the early career of the two artists in their hometown of Leiden. 4 In view of similarities in composition as we ll as on grounds of analogous changes in attribution, the painting might be compared to the Still Life with Books (1628/31, Fig. 5.1) at the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam.5 Thi s still life, executed in a much warmer palette, was initially acquired for the Amsterdam collection as an authentic Rem brandt.6 Merely four years later, on the basis of a corn-

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parison of the leather binding of the books and their visibly worn pages, rendered in identical fashion as the books cited on a series of four canvases depicting the evangelists Mark, Matthew, Lukas, and John by Jan Lievens (Cat. 40, 41), Kurt Bauch proposed t o attribute the Still Life with a Violin to this master.7 This hypothesis was not accepted immediatel y and w ithout reservation, for the reason that Lievens is not generally considered a still - life painter and that the genre is almost entirely absent from his oeuvre. However, careful research of the Amsterdam painting confirmed that the still life, understood mostly as a view of a scholar's study featuring attributes of knowledge, can be safely attributed to Jan Lievens, with smal l additions done by Jan Jansz. van Uyl • (1595/96-1639).8 By way of a comparison with the aforementioned still life in Amsterdam, the Vanitas still life in the co llections of Museum de Fundatie has been attributed to Jan Lievens in the past. Lievens' authorship is contested by the leading stil l life painting expert Fred G. Meijer, who expressed his misgivings in a remarkable monograph on the art of Jan Davidsz. de Heem.9 While the attribution of this impressive still life to Lievens per se may not have convinced Meijer, he does not deny its affinity with Lievens art and wou ld look for its originator in his circle from Leiden.10 On the other hand, Arie Wallert, who treated Lievens' stil l life at the Rijksmuseum extensively, proposed to attribute the Vanitas to yet another Leiden master - the painter David Bailly (1584-1657), a still -l ife specia list.11 Despite the unresolved question of authorship that warrants further discussion, Still Life with a Violin, Book, and a Skull is an incredibl y impressive artwork, providing us with an opportunity to stop and ponder. LN

"Vanity of vanities, all is vanity!" Ecclesiastes 1:2. 2 Jacques de Gheyn II, Vanitas Still Life, 1621, oil on panel, 117 x 160 cm, inv. no. 1957.36, Yale University Art Gallery, Yale; see Meijer 2016, pp. 50-64. 3 For more on its meaning, see the entry by Hana Seifertova in this publication, Cat. 4. 4 Cat. Zwolle 2005. 5 Jan Lievens, Still Life with Books - Vanitas, 1628/31, oil on panel, 89.3 x 117.5 cm, inv. no. SK-A-4090, Rijksmuseum Amsterdam. 6 Cat. Washington/Milwaukee/Amsterdam 2008, p. 102. 7 Ibid. 8 Conservation research has revealed the presence of another painting under Lievens's still life; for a detailed description and analysis of the painting, see Wallert 2006. 9 See Meijer 2016, fn. 160, pp. 401-402. 10 Ibid. 11 Wallert 2006, p. 151.

5.1 Jan Lievens Still Life with Books Oil on panel, 91 x 120 cm Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum inv. no. SK-A- 4090

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Karel van der Pluym 1625 Leiden - 1672 Leiden Man Reading, with Symbols of Transience, ca . 1650 Oil on oak panel , 75.5 x 60.5 cm Cologn e, Wallraf -Ri c hartz- Museum & Fondation Corboud, inv. no. WRM 2366 Provenance: 1928 donat ed to the Museum by Galerie Gebruder Douwes, Amsterdam Selected bibliography: Bredius 1931, p. 258; Cat. Kain 1967, pp. 84- 85; Mirimonde 1979, pp. 62, 64; Sumowski IV (1989), no. 1599; Cat. Kain 2019, no. 6

Karel van der Pluym is mainly known as Rembrandt's relative - a cousin once removed from his mother's side - and close confidant. Most documents simply refer to him as Rembrandt's 'cousin', which may not correspond to the actual familial relation but reflects the special and at times very close relationship the two enjoyed .' Van der Pluym's background of a single child from a well-off household allowed him to lend Rembrandt money when the latter was in financial need and to assign his son Titus a considerable sum through his wil l in 1662.2 Alongside business. Van der Pluym pursued painting especially between 1648 and 1659,3 inspired thematically by the art of his hometown's so-called Leiden School but stylisticall y especially by his famous relative in Amsterdam. Given the parallels in colour palette and painting technique, Van der Pluym may also be classified among Rembrandt's circle. Similarities can be mostly observed in the manner of lighting and use of subdued reddish tones, which is why Van der Plu ym 's notable paintings were in fact temporarily attributed to the circle surround ing Rembrandt. The best known among these is Man with a Golden Helmet in Berlin - an attribution that ultimately did not last.• Whether Van der Pluym did or did not stud y under Rembrandt 5 cannot be proven w ith certainty despite the close affinity between their paintings. The different locations and high workload of both men, which would have made longer personal instruction considerably more difficult, makes this assumption unlikel y. On the other hand, the two may have engaged in occasional teaching sessions during visits or at family gatherings as well as in theoretical discussions about painting. Van der Pluym 's verified oeuvre, comprising as little as around seventeen paintings.6 is characterised by a thematic preference for portraying scholars a motif highly popular in the uni ve rsity town of Leiden especial ly during the seventeenth century. The Cologne painting, plausibly attributed to Van der Pluym since at least 1931, can also be classified in this genre.7 A bearded man w ith a red , fur-trimmed coat and a conspicuous headdress sitting on a chair takes up the larger part of the painting 's left half. In contrast to Rembrandt's Prague Scholar in His Study (Cat. 46), the figure lacks a certain structural monumentality.

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He muses over the w ritten pages in his hand and supports himself against the round table in front of him with an arrangement of diverse objects. Like images of scholars, stil l lifes incorporating symbolic references to the transience of life were popular in Leiden during Van der Pluym 's lifetime. 8 The Cologne painting features a Vanitas-themed still life with a toppled hourglass, an extinguished candle, a sku ll, and a viola da gamba with a bow and sheets of music. The light, illuminating the objects and the man's face and sleeves, is reflected on the hourglass, coming from a window located in the left, unseen part of the room. Van der Pluym's assemblage of objects is consonant with the traditional canon of Baroque Vanitas still lifes.9 Van der Pluym held various public offices; among others, he was a found ing member and later dean of his hometown's Guild of St Luke - attesting to the degree of his at least temporary dedication to art and a member of the Leiden city council from 1664, partitioning his energy in di verse fields of interest.10 This at times deficient focus on painting also explains the somewhat stiff execution of the figures and proportional imbalances in some of Van der Pluym's_ artworks. In the Cologne painting too the still life objects are slightly oversized with respect to the protagonist. Or could this be intentional, and the disproportions are due to Bedeutungsperspektive? Van der Pluym achieved a more convincing rendition of space in his signed and dated painting of A Scholar in His Study (Fig. 6.1). In comparison, the Cologne painting can be dated prior to 1655. IH

6.1 Karel van der Pluym Scholar in His Study, 1655 Oil on panel, 54.5 x 41.5 cm Leiden, Museum De Lakenhal inv. no. S 357

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De Winkel in Cat. Amsterdam 2019, pp. 60-61. For a transcript of Van der Pluym's will, see Bredius 1931, pp. 253-254; in 1665, Rembrandt became Titus' legal guardian. 3 De Winkel in Cat. Amsterdam 2019, p. 63. 4 See in detail Adams 1984, p. 433. 5 Discussed i.a. in Bredius 1931; recently addressed under the entry 'Karel van der Pluym' in AKL, vol. 96, p. 167. 6 De Winkel in Cat. Amsterdam 2019, p. 63. 7 Bredius 1931, p. 258. 8 See the still seminal Bergstrom et al. 1956, p. 154 ff. 9 See i.a. Cat. 4 and Cat. 5. 10 For an extensive list of his positions, see ThB 27, p. 164.

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Gerard ter Borch II 1617 Zwolle - 1681 Deventer Heraclitus, ea. 1648 Oi l on oak panel, 28.5 x 22 cm Cologne, Wallraf-Richartz-Museum & Fondation Corboud, on loan from a private collection, inv. no. WRM Dep. 940 Provenance: before 1752-1765 coll. WRM, Amsterdam; auctioned in Amsterdam, 19 Jun 1765, lot 102 (to Fouquet); owned privately in England during the 1770s; auctioned in London, 12 Dec 1766, lot 56; 1924 art dealer J. Bruinse, The Hague; 1925 art dealer Van Diemen, Amsterdam Selected bibliography: Gudlaugsson 1960, no. 67; Raupp 2012; Cat. Koln 2019, no. 7

Besides St Jerome in His Study (Cat. 20), the two ancient Greek philosophers Democritus of Abdera (460/ 59 - 371/70 BC) and Heraclitus of Ephesus (ea. 544 - 483 BC) were the most popular subjects for depictions of historical thinkers, especially in the Netherlands. Be it on self-standing images or pendant paintings, the meaning of these figures only properly emerges when they are seen side by side. It is based on the opposition of their respective worldviews, most often symbolised by a globe: while the laughing philosopher Democritus responds to the bustle of human society with ridicule and scorn, for Heraclitus, it is a source of grief and melancholy; he is the crying philosopher.' The popu lar appeal of this idea is evinced by its adoption in the field of theatre and its antipodal genres of tragedy and comedy. Poet Joost van den Vondel dedicated the following verses to the Amsterdam Theatre in 1637: "Drama [... ] is a miniature form of all of humankind's vanity: what Democritus laughs and Heraclitus weeps at". 2 Ter Borch's pair of paintings with the Cologne Heraclitus and the missing Oemocritus (Fig. 7.1)3 are noteworthy not merely in terms of his oeuvre. Created at the beginning of his career while the artist still devoted most of his energy to genre painting, they differ prominently from the noble and elegant portraits of his later career. His unpretentious, subdued rendition of the philosopher in contemporary dress and physiognomy contrasts with the time less and historicising portraits made by his colleagues. Its intimate small format and genre- like rendition of the interior surrounding Heraclitus likewise depart from traditional, large-figure representations on a neutral background. Simultaneously, Ter Borch also forgoes the sometimes borderlinegrotesque play of expression and gesture, which was commonly used to visualize the philosophers' optimistic or pessimistic outlook. One example is offered by a popular etching that capitalises on the force of two of Rembrandt's character heads and explicitly calls them Democritus and Heraclitus (Fig. 13.l). The plate combines an etching by Jan Gillisz. van Vliet after Rembrandt's laughing Self-Portrait (Mauritshuis, The Hague) with his famous early figure of a despairing Judas (cf. Cat. 12, 13).4

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Ten Borch's subtler and more idiosyncratic interpretation - almost reminiscent of portraiture 5 - may have caused that the connection of the two panels was no longer recognised from a certain point and that the paintings were sold as attractive standalone pictures. This must have been the case by 1747 at the latest, wh ich is when Democritus is attested at a public auction of the collections of Jacques de Roore in The Hague without its counterpart.6 The Cologne Herac/itus resurfaced in 1752 among the collection of the Amsterdam-based dealer Pieter Leendert de Neufville. In an auction catalogue from 1765, it is annotated simply as a "studying philosopher with accessories".7 His melancholy pose, pausing briefly and pondering to oneself wh ile studying a book, explains this general interpretation. An early testimony to the appeal of this composition is provided by a masterful pen and ink drawing with wash , a reproduction ofTer Borch's Herac/itus in slightly smaller format (Fig. 7.2). 8 It was created by Jan de Bisschop (1628-1671), known for his characteristic drawn copies after prominent painters. The two artists may have personally met in Amsterdam around the time of the painting 's creation in 1648.9 The city was also home to Bisschop's brother-in-law, the theologian, historian and poet Gerard Brandt (cf. Cat. 18). Brandt likewise owned an art collection, which included numerous drawings by Bisschop. He also penned a poem "op een sch ildery van Demokryt en Heraklyt: Ungrateful world [... ] we alone perceive your masquerade and vainfu l flatter failed, by Democritus scorned, by Heraclitus wa iled.''10 AS

Cf. on this issue: Weisbach 1928, Blankert 1967, and for a detailed discussion of the image addressed here Raupp 2012. 2 Quoted in Weisbach 1828, p. 147. 3 Gudlaugsson 1967, no. 66; I thank Christian Beherman and Xavier Givaudan for their research into the painting's whereabouts. 4 The etching in Gaywood is clearly based on Frarn;ois Langlois' series of ancient philosophers published in ea. 1640. Jerome David (1600- 1662) made these after Jan Gillisz. van Vliets' etchings after Rembrandt and titled them Democritus and Heraclitus. The series also featured an engraving after the Old Man with a Fur Cap (Cat. 30), identified here as Philo of Alexandria (Print Collection, Albertina Wien), cf. Muylle 2014. 5 Cf. Comelis Ketel's re fence to the pair Democritus-Heraclitus by Karel van Mander (1604), where the artist lent his own features to Democritus and the physiognomy of his Amsterdam customer Hendrick van Os to Heraclitus. 6 Cf. Gudlaugsson 1960, no. 66. However, the existence of copies complicates an unambiguous identification. 7 http://bibliotheque-numerique.inha.fr/ idurl / 1/ 17905, no. 102 (Terwesten 100); on the collection, cf. (without reference to Ter Borch): Bikker 2012. 8 Pen and wash drawing, 228 x 185 mm, Stiftung Weimarer Klassik und Kunstsammlungen, Weimar, inv. no. KK 4994; Gudlaugsson 1960, no. 67c, purchased at the posthumous sale of P. Yver, Amsterdam, 31 Mar 1788, no. 25; he also refers to a red-chalk drawing of the same subject by Bisschop, location unknown, no. 67b; on Bisschop, cf. Van Gelder 1971. 9 Dorotheum Wien, 17 Apr 2013, no. 658; Gudlaugsson 1960, no. 67a, classifies it as a studio copy, citing that the Cologne panel spent a long time in Ter Borch's studio. Raupp 2012, pp. 185- 188, hypothesizes it might have been made during Ter Borch's stay in Munster in 1648. 10 G. Brandts, Poi!zy, Amsterdam 1688, p. 479 (editor's translation).

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Gera rd ter Borch Demokritos Oil on p anel, 27 x 22 cm previously Xavie r Givaudan Collection, Geneve, c urrent w hereabouts unknown 7.2

Jan de Bisschop Seated Astronomus with Books and Globe Pen on paper, 228 x 185 mm Weimar, Stiftung Weimarer Klassik und Kunstsammlungen inv. no. KK 4994

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Jan Havicksz. Steen 1625/26 Leiden - 1679 Leiden The Scholar and Death, ea. 1668-1669 Oil on oak panel, 46.5 x 42.5 cm signed right on mantelpiece: JSteen National Gallery Prague, inv. no. DO 4151 Provenance: auctioned in Amsterdam, 28.3.1708; 1765-1945 Nostitz collection, Prague; after 1945 National Gallery Prague Selected bibliography: HdG, 1907, l, no. 237; Cat. Praha 2012, no. 410; Cat. Budapest 2014, no. 132; Cat. Koln 2019, no. 8

2

As we may gather from the foregoing essay by Laura Thiel-Convery and Wayne Franits, a scholar in his study was a popular subject in seventeenth - century Dutch art.' One excellent example of this type of painting is a composition by the genre master Jan Steen titled The Scholar and Death. Like Rembrandt in his Scholar in His Study (Cat. 46), here too the artist portrayed the moment when the elder looks up from his books, still with a somewhat absent expression. The volumes resting on the table, as well as an alembic, shawm and globe at its foot indicate we are seeing the study of a man of science and arts. The scholar, preoccupied with his research, has apparently failed to notice the boy standing beside him, with a wreath of ivory in his hair and an hourglass in his hand, nor the smiling man making a suggestive gesture,' let alone the skeleton with a crying boy entering the room. The ch ild holds a pot with a urine sample in his right hand, a reference to one of the most common medical examinations during the seventeenth century. In the present case, the boy's tears suggest the test did not turn out well. The theme of a medical examination recurs throughout Steen's oeu vre,3 with the artist developing it most during the 1660s - which is also the date of the present painting in Prague.• The earlier literature listed it as a counterpart to another of Steen's works, originally from the Nostitz collection, titled Physician and a Woman Patient. 5 Given that the illness of the woman in the painting is patently due to early pregnancy, the two works were understood as an allegory of life and death. Records about Steen's illness and the death of his youngest ch ild in the period were likewise taken to support the allegorical interpretation of his Scholar. 6 Nevertheless, the gentle play of the eyes, gestures and minute nuances shift the meaning in a slightly different direction. We see the scholar in the centre of the composition, but his absorbed expression suggests his thoughts have taken him to an altogether different p lane and that he is ignorant of the events around him. Sim ilarly, the frowning boy with an hourg lass looks directly at us from the image, just like the man in a red beret, whose hand points in the same d irection as the boy's eyes. The message is rather clear - it is not so much the scholar as we the viewers to whom the warn ing about approaching Death is issued ; the Memento mori is meant for us.

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While Steen, a master of genre painting, t ypicall y made compositions invol ving an incomparabl y larger staffage and especially a more ironic subject' than The Scholar and Death, we find a sim ilar type of interior and general composition in several other of his artworks. One example is his painting t it led The Drawing Lesson, 8 which notably resembles the Prague painting in its composition. Simi lar boys such as the one here holding an hourglass or depictions of a scholar also frequently recur in Steen's works. in the Prague painting , however, the artist does not cite from his ow n repertoire of subjects but in its rendition recalls the Leiden school of fine painting as well as the work of his other notable colleauges, such as Johannes Vermeer (1632-1675) with his Astronomer and Geographer,• or the much earl ier master Hans Holbein the Younger (ea. 1498-1543). The influence of the latter's still wide ly known Dance of Death,10 an inspi rati on to many subsequent artists, is particularly evident on the figure of Death arriving in the background." Steen's life is inseparably bound up with the university town of Leiden. He was born here into a brewer's family and as the eldest son of a prosperous businessman was later enrolled at the famous university at the age of twenty." In contrast, Stee.n's artistic training is only vaguely documented, and the figures listed as his teachers include e.g. Haarlem's Adriaen van Ostade (1610 - 1685). Houbraken claims Steen also tra ined under the landscape master Jan van Goyen (1596-1656) from The Hague, but his assertion is largely based on the fact of Steen's ma rriage to Van Goyen's daughter Margriet.13 Steen briefly settled in The Hague, but his life is better characterised as a pilgrimage between Utrecht, The Hague, Delft, Haarlem, and finally his hometown of Leiden, where he returned a little short of nine years before his death.14 He helped found the local Guild of Saint Luke and was even appointed its President, though Steen would only refer to himself as the son of a former brewer.'5 His work, with an ability both to move and to entertain, speaks to us even today "vom Geiste zum Geiste".16 This is true of Steen's art and The Scholar and Death in particu lar just as much as of the art of Rembrandt and especia lly the Scholar in His Study. LN

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See the essay by Thiel-Convery & Franits in this publication, pp. 33-45. The literature also sometimes identifies it as a self-portrait by Jan Havicksz. Steen, see Cat. Budapest 2014, p. 438. Additional examples include: Jan Steen, The Doctor's Visit, ea. 1665-67, oil on panel, 76 x 63.5 cm, inv. no. SK-C-230, Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, and Jan Steen, The Sick Maiden, ea. 1663-65, oil on panel, 58 x 46.5 cm, inv. no. 167, Koninklijk Kabinet van Schilderijen Mauritshuis, The Hague. Cat. Praha 2012, p. 421, Cat. Washington/Amsterdam 1996, p. 70. Dendrochronological analysis of the wood support suggest the painting could have been made in 1652 at the earliest, but likely after 1656, see Cat. Praha 2012 , p. 419. Jan Steen, Physician and a Woman Patient, oil on panel, 48.8 x 46.6 cm, inv no. DO 4598, National Gallery Prague. The two paintings were likely purchased together, but it seems unlikely they should have been created as counterparts, cf. Cat. Praha 2012, p. 419. Cat. Praha 2012, p. 419. For more on the life of Jan Steen, see e.g. Bok, in: Cat. Washington/ Amsterdam 1996, pp. 25-38. These scenes from everyday life, perhaps bordering on chaos, were characteristic for Steen do the extent that they inspired the phrase "een huishouden van Jan Steen" [Jan Steen's household]. It originated in the 18th century and describes lively images filled with shrieking children and other merry characters, see Cat. Washington/Amsterdam 1996, p. n. Jan Steen, The Drawing Lesson, ea. 1663-65, oil on panel, 49.3 x 41 cm, inv. no. 83.PB.388, J. Paul Getty Museum. Johannes Vermeer, The Astronomer, ea. 1668, oil on panel, 50 x 45 cm, inv. no . RF 1983-28, Musee du Louvre, Paris; Johannes Vermeer, The Geographer, 1669, oil on panel, 51.6 x 45.4 cm, inv. no. 1149, Stadelsches Kunstinstitut und Stadtische Galerie, Frankfurt. The series of woodcuts titled The Dance of Death by Hans Holbein the Younger is without doubt one of the most important and influential renditions of its kind. Hans Liitzelburger, after Hans Holbein the Yg., Dance of Death, ea. 152325, published 1538, series of woodcuts. See Cat. Budapest 2014, p. 438; Cat. Praha 2012, p. 419. Cat. Washington/Amsterdam 1996, p. 27. Cat. London/New York 2001, p. 343. Ibid. Ibid. Cat. Washington/Amsterdam 1996, p. 39.

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David Teniers II 1610 Antwerp - 1690 Brussels A Scholar, ea. 1650 Oil on oak panel, 25 x 21 cm signed lower right: D · TENIERS · F(e) Cologne, Wallraf-Richartz-Museum & Fondation Corboud, inv. no. WRM 2111 Provenance: 1879 coll. E. E. Davies, York, documented at the Yorkshire Fine Art & Industrial Exhibition , York; coll. August Camphausen, Cologne; coll. Emmy Schnitzler, Berlin, bequeathed to the Museum in 1916 Selected bibliography: Poppelreuter 1917, p. 71 ; Cat. Kain 1967, p. 127; Cat. Dusseldorf 2014, no. 36; Cat. Kain 2019, no. 9

9.1 David Te niers II Alchemist in His Study Oil o n panel , 30,5 x 22 cm Pari s, Private Collectio n Fran