A New Look at Rembrandt Iconography

Author(s): Jan Białostocki

Source: Artibus et Historiae , 1984, Vol. 5, No. 10 (1984), pp. 9-19
Published by: IRSA s.c.

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/1483191

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JAN BIALOSTOCKI

A New Look at Rembrandt Iconography

1 this area of general ideas an actual concrete theme ma-

terializes )).
((With iconography conceived in such a way all the sym-
bolic and historic themes, all the allegoric and emblem-
It was more than a quarter of a century ago that I had the atic features come to produce an art expressing sincere,
privilege to present problems in Rembrandt iconography at deeply felt human experience. The borderlines between
the memorable symposium organized by Ludwig Heyden- the traditional iconographic categories disappear )).
reich in Munich in March 1957, where I tried to summarize (( In Rembrandt's late period his Homer, his Jacob Bless-
ing his Sons, the Jewish Bride, apostles, regents, riders,
and discuss the results of several Rembrandt celebrations
poets, and gods are no longer from any particular space
which had taken place in the anniversary year 1956 1. After
or time. The innermost sense of the late pictures by
some detailed considerations about how Rembrandt ap- Rembrandt may be grasped in such concepts as 'grace',
proached the problems of meaning in his works I came to 'love', 'the man denied mercy' 'the hero')) 2
the following conclusion:
I have also stressed that the master did not give any
clearcut clues to the interpretation of his works.
( In Rembrandt's late works the image originates neither
from a generic formal scheme, nor from a particular ob- In my papers read at other Rembrandt symposia - the
one at the Chicago Art Institute in 1969 and another at the
servation of detail nor from a traditional theme, be it liter-
ary or mythological, sacred or profane; the image origi- Free University in West Berlin in 1970 - I attempted to mod-
nates rather from a definite sphere of general ideas with ify the conclusions reached above 3. At the same time our
specific psychological content and expression. This was
knowledge of problems connected with Rembrandt's icono-
a sphere of ideas which could of course be borrowed
from a literary source, like a parable from the Bible, but graphy has matured thanks to the work of Kurt Bauch, Jan
could also be conceived of in a very generic way. From Emmens, Julius Held, Hans van de Waal, and many other

1 Jan Biatostocki, "Ikonographische Forschungen zu Rem-
brandts Werk ", MOnchner Jahrbuch der bildenden Kunst, III F., VIII,
1957, p. 195-210, reprinted in my Stil und Ikonographie, Dresden,
1966.
2 Stil und Ikonographie, p. 139f.
3 Jan Biatostocki, " Rembrandt's Iconography", in: Rembran
after Three Hundred Years: A Symposium, Rembrandt and His
lowers, The Art Institute of Chicago, 1969, Chicago, 1973, p. 67
- the same: " Der Sunder als tragischer Held bei Rembrandt ", in:
Neue Beitrage zur Rembrandt-Forschung, Berlin (West), 1973, p.
137-150.

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scholars 4. The most thoroughgoing innovations, the ones
which have led me to rethink and modify my initial concep-
tions, have come from Christian Timpel. With regard to
Rembrandt's representations of religious history, Timpel re-
jected the idea several art historians, myself included, had ex-
time asserted that Rembrandt, as a typically Protestan
ius, was deeply imbued with Bible teaching 7. As proof o
they point out his alleged independence from Catholic
tion and they claim that Rembrandt represented many
themes which had never been used before.

pressed that Rembrandt's works originated more from gener- On the other hand Timpel, in his studies proves tha
al ideas concerning human existence than from concrete Rembrandt's attitude towards subject matter was actually
themes 5. I have had to take Timpel's results into account, very different. Rembrandt knew iconographic tradition very
since I find them valid, and what I am presenting here is a well and he made wide use of it. His point of departure was
summary of his contribution, as well as some new consid- Lastman's Italianism with its concentration on history and
erations of my own concerning iconography in Rembrandt's originating in turn from Elsheimer. The basic source of Rem-
works 6. brandt's imagery was the rich repertory of pictorial narrative,
both mythological and historical, produced by German and
2 Netherlandish masters in the graphic arts in the XVIth and
the beginning of the XVIIth century, especially by Maerten
van Heemskerck.
Christian Timpel combines the education and profession
of a theologian with that of an art historian. Since 1967 he
has published several studies on Rembrandt iconography (( Instead of dogmatic and typological scenes more mov-
which have given important results shedding light on several ing ones appear. As a result various hitherto rarely used
controversial problems. His work has enabled us to consider- themes which in the XVIth century had been represente
only as elements in series, in simultaneous representa-
ably diminish and limit the ambiguities of meaning in Rem- tions, or as book illustrations were now shown on their
brandt's art. Formerly many Rembrandt scholars thought of own. Moreover, scenes which had beep shown before
Rembrandt as a great individualistic genius, and were con- only in graphic works were now also used in the loftier
vinced that the connections between his art and icono- technique of painting )) 8.
graphic tradition were rather slim and that his iconography was
to a great extent more directly influenced by the Bible. TGm- Tumpel has shown that almost all the previously rarely
pel accounts for the origins of this opinion by the influenceused biblical scenes, which Rembrandt introduced into paint-
of Classical criticism which considered an artist who disre- ing for the first time had already appeared earlier in prints,
garded accepted rules as a wild genius, unbound by cultural for example Samson Threatening this Father-in-law, Samson's
tradition. For these critics Rembrandt seemed to have Wedding, Judas Returning the 30 Pieces of Silver. Tumpel
concentrated mainly on purely artistic problems. also indicates a similar procedural method in the art of some
Dutch art historical studies, spurred by patriotic offeeling,
Rembrandt's contemporaries, broadly speaking, like the
have stressed Rembrandt's considerable education and his so-called Pre-Rembrandtists (Lastman, Pynas, Moeyaert), Ru-
exhaustive knowledge of the art of the past, but at the bens, Guercino, and Fetti. Therefore in Tumpels's method of
same

4 Kurt Bauch, Der frihe Rembrandt und seine Zeit, Berlin (West),Ikonographie der Historien Rembrandts ", in: Nederlands Kunsthistor-
1960, the same: " Ikonographischer Stil. Zur Frage der Inhalte in isch Jaarboek, XX, 1969, p. 107-198; the same: Rembrandt legt die
Rembrandts Kunst ", in the same: Studien zur Kunstgeschichte, Berlin Bibel aus..., Kupferstichkabinett der Staatlichen Museen, Preussischer
(West), 1967, p. 123-151; Jan Emmens, Rembrandt en de regels van Kulturbesitz, Berlin (West) 1970; the same: Rembrandt in Selbstzeug-
de kunst, Utrecht, 1968; Julius Held, Rembrandt's Aristotle and the nissen und Bilddokumenten, Reinbeck b. Hamburg, 1977; the same:
other Rembrandt Studies, Princeton, 1969; H. van de Waal, Steps to- Discourse held at the celebration on the occasion of the presentation
wards Rembrandt. Collected Articles 1937-1972, Amsterdam-London of de-Jong-van-Beek-en-Donk-Prize, in: Koninkhijke Nederlandse
1974. For more bibliography see the revised version of my article inAkademie van Wetenschappen [Amsterdam], Bijsondere Bijeenkomst
Stil und Ikonographie. Studien zur Kunstwissenschaft, new ed., K6ln,der Afdeling Letterkunde, 13.3.1972, p. 7-20.
1981, pp. 173-213.
5 Christian Tumpel, Studien zur Ikonographie der Historien Rem- 6 The present remarks repeat the main ideas of the new version
brandts: Deutung der bisher nicht oder falsch gedeuteten Historien, of my study, while developing still further a few questions from the
Hamburg 1968 (Diss.); the same: " Ikonographische Beitrige zu Rem-1981 revised version.
brandt ", I and II, in: Jahrbuch der Hamburger Kunstsammlungen, XIII 7 Tumpel, op. cit., 1972, p. 9.
1968, p. 96-126 and XVI, 1971, p. 20-38; the same: " Studien zur 8 Timpel, op. cit., 1972, p. 12.

10

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1) Rembrandt, ((The Hundred Guilder Print n, etching.

interpretation finding models from prints became the

How key to the iconographic tradition was for Rem-
important
identifying the themes in Rembrandt's pictures which
brandt's arthad
becomes clear when we realize that there are
constituted iconographic riddles for scholars until various then. religious themes not mentioned in the Bible that
Tumpel formulated the results of his research in the an important
fol- role in his art, for example Adam and Eve
lowing words: ment the Death of Abel, The Repose on the Flight into E
The Lamentation of Christ, the inn-keeper in the Supper
Emmaus, the jaw-bone of a horse in the murder of Abel,
((In his images Rembrandt gets almost all his iconogra-
so on.
phic motives from pictorial tradition and sometimes he
makes representations clearer by referring to the original. Tumpel assumes that in such works Rembr
text, or to other representations ))9. ally departed from the text, in order to bring
ing meaning of the narrative themes, or to m
more expressive and give it some moral sense. For instance
9 Tumpel, op. cit., 1972, p. 15. in the Hundred Guilder Print [Fig. 1] the rich young man on

11

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 especially <<Rembrandt's scenes from the New Testament
are strongly influenced by pictorial tradition and in keeping
with this tradition, frequently depart from the wording of the
a -
r I
text >. But he feels this may also by accounted for by the
??

fact that the pictorial sources which might be of use to him

for the New Testament iconography were numerous, while
as for the Old Testament << two thirds of the models available
to Rembrandt were foreign to his style both in form and
iconography 12.
Tumpel rejects the then fairly current opinion which I also
shared in 1957, that in his early period Rembrandt stuck to
the texts of historical narrative, while in his later period he
J
departed from this tradition. For Tumpel there is no such
c-

consistency: ((There are some early works which depart

I

from the literal sense of the text, just as the pictorial tradition
did, and there are late works in which Rembrandt, following
in part some out-of-the-way tradition, corrects his earlier
.u"-
reading >; ...( In his earlier works he did tend to stick more
closely to the text than to the tradition and in the late works
~4-
it is the other way round; )) 13. Finally Tumpel described vari-
ous tendencies which can be discerned in Rembrandt's hand-
ling of the themes he represented. There is a great variety
of them; at times the historical context is very elaborate, at
others the main characters in the dramatis personae are
taken completely out of context. But generally <<through the
singling out of specific groups or individuals he intensified
the psychological content. He used chiaroscuro in much the
same way: he continually isolates the essential from the non-
essential form and thus he gives his own interpretation of
2) Rembrandt, ((The Prophetess Hannah with a Servant the story )) 14
Boy ), National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh. As a result of these considerations Tumpel managed to
solve several problems connected with identifying the sub-
jects of the paintings: for instance The Sunamit Woman
the left is represented at Christ's feet while in the GospelLeaving the Prophet Elisa instead of the Sending away of Ha-
Christ had met him much later and somewhere else 10. With gar 1640, Victoria and Albert Museum, London; David Taking
Leave of Jonathan instead of The Reconciliation of David and
this extremely flexible relationship to iconographic tradition
Rembrandt, even when borrowing from it, always maintained Absalom in Leningrad; Isaac and Rebecca instead of The Jew-
great independence. He transformed particular scenes either ish Bride in the Rijkmuseum, Sarah Awaiting Tobit instead of
making use of Biblical sources, or applying a particular selec-
Hendrickje in Bed; in Edinburgh; Moses smashing the Tablets
tion procedure (Herausl6sung), first noted and describedwith
by the 10 Commandments instead of Moses Showing the
Tablets
Tumpel 11. He selected minor elements from important his- of the 10 Commandments to the Jewish People, in
torical scenes and turned them into themes for composition Berlin; The Prophetess Hannah with a Servant Boy instead of
on their own. Timothy with his Grandmother in Edinburgh [Fig. 2]. Many of
Rembrandt's attitude towards literary tradition varied and
these have been quite important contributions 15. But they
it is difficult to express it univocally. According to Tumpel
are even more significant because of the clear-headed and

10 Tumpel, op. cit., 1972, p. 17. 13 Timpel, loc. cit.

11 Tumpel, op. cit., 1969, p. 160-187. 14 Tumpel, op. cit., 1972, p. 19.
12 Timpel, op. cit., 1972, p. 18. 15 Various contributions by Timpel.

12

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 io

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r~r ?:;
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1Fi~ X "rwi~
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3) Rembrandt, (( Isaac and Rebecca )) (so-called ((Jewish Bride ))), Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.

efficient methods the German scholar uses. It would be quitedow the historical themes he represented with universal hu-
impossible today for me to say again in the same way what Iman significance.
wrote in 1957, namely that << Rembrandt seems to have put What I should like however to reiterate is that although
aside the historical element to stress the universally human we now know that what we thought was the Jewish Bride is
content and his late pictures have become just symbols elud- really Isaac and Rebecca [Fig. 3], what gives this work its
ing any precise identification and interpretation )) 16. Practi- lasting importance and makes it a source of moving experi-
cally all the historical paintings by Rembrandt have now been ence to any sensitive viewer is not the vivid representation
traced to some religious or other themes and one has to ad- of the Biblical scene, but the fact that an emotional relation-
mit with Tumpel, that those interpreting them before him had ship between the artist and the viewer is established in a
stressed the unimportance of the subject matter and the im- picture endowed with extraordinary simplicity, subtlety, and
portance of the general human content precisely in those at the same time intensity and authenticity of expression.
cases where they were unable to identify the theme. Which In my study in 1957 I suggested that Rembrandt usually
does not of course prevent us from saying that the intensity began with some general idea - with what I called a broad
of Rembrandt's mise-en-scene and the depth of his art en- encompassing theme, like Reconciliation, Grace, Charity,
Friendship, Love and that it was only in the course of the
creative process that the subject cristallized into shape as a
16 As it was formulated by Tumpel, op. cit., 1969, p. 195. concrete historical theme. Tumpel however showed that

13

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whenever we trace the development of the composition in The late Kurt Bauch, an outstanding Rembrandt scholar,
Rembrandt's drawings, we find the evolution inevitably be- discussed the problems of iconographic function in Rem-
gins with the concrete story as found in iconographic tradi- brandt's pictures in his book Der fruihe Rembrandt and seine
tion. He also pointed out that everything that may be consi- Zeit in 1960 and also in his later article Ikonographischer Stil
dered universal human content in the story is intensified and (of Rembrandt) in 1967 20. Bauch maintained - as did Ludwig
developed in the creative process. Minz before him and other scholars after him - that in Rem-
It seems to me however that Tuimpel's ideas agree with brandt's art there is no pure genre painting. We are of course
the ones I expressed in as much as we both have tried to un- aware that the concept of genre and in fact the very term it-
derstand and point out specific values resulting from the way self are later inventions, they did not exist in Rembrandt's
Rembrandt represented his subject-matter, especially - al- time. There were however in the XVIlth century more de-
though not exclusively - in his later period, and expressing tailed descriptive terms for representions based on the ob-
basically human, emotional frames of mind - like friendship, servation of real life rather than on the narration of a story. I
guilt, reconciliation 17; Rembrandt could have expressed them think Bauch was right in stressing that Rembrandt, unlike
in various other ways, but they definitely cristallized in his other Dutch painters, chose not so much nature as history
imagination as concrete human situations known to him for his subjects. A comparison with Caravaggio makes Rem-
from iconographic tradition. What Tumpel calls ((the con- brandt's position even more evident: Caravaggio represented
densing of psychological content)) (Verdichtung psycholo- historical themes as if they were (( natural )) happenings, out-
gischen Gehalts) 18 is not so different from what I was trying side history, for example his Death of the Virgin. Rembrandt
to say. We are also close as regards the description or the does the opposite; even the landscape is always involved in
presentation of emotional content in Rembrandt's work. Even some human story. In every Rembrandt landscape it is possi-
when the artist took a concrete action in a definite story as ble to find narrative, symbolic or emblematic associations
his point of departure, his interest in his later period did not with human actions and problems. The life of nature is often
concern so much the narrative as the intense, intrinsically tuned in a historical key; see for example how he inserted
human experience. Therefore he so often divested the stories the story of the Good Samaritan, into the Cracow landscape
represented of all their outward color and glamour and trans- of 1638 [Fig. 4]. If it is not always a whole story, at least
formed them into psychological dramas of individuals - even there are some landmarks to bear witness to human pre-
sence and add allegorical meaning. They may be obelisks,
of those I once called (( negative heroes ), like Judas or Ha-
castles, bridges, barges, windmills. But also light and shade,
mann. As a result we have pictures which reflect varying hu-
man situations and experience and which fit the concept of mountains and plains, water and stone speak their figurative
(( encompassing themes )) 19. language. Even a landscape apparently so pure as the one
called Three Trees, which shows the storm as opposed to
the peaceful country side, contains some moral meaning,
3
most likely obvious to anyone educated in the metaphors of
preachers' rhetoric, emblem books, and Cats' poetry. Similar
Tumpel has devoted his research to pictures of historical, ideas seem to have been expressed in the Amsterdam Land-
mostly religious, subjects. However Rembrandt's production scape with a Bridge.
abounds in works with other subject matter as well, such as It is almost impossible to find among Rembrandt's paint-
landscapes, portraits, and < genre)) images. The borderlines ed works anything really corresponding to the XIXth century
between these iconographic areas are vague and since the idea of genre. As a matter of fact it would be surprising if it
categories which we use to classify XVIIth century pictures were otherwise. And still Bauch's recent definitions may
are of later coinage it is not astonishing that they do not al- be useful for the way they distinguish certain categories; the
ways fit Rembrandt's paintings. area of genre as he defined it includes anything in everyday

17 That the two opposing views of the way Rembrandt formed1973, p. 175.
his images (beginning with general ideas which I called encompass- 18 Timpel, op. cit., 1972, p. 19.
ing themes or beginning with historical subject matter as proposed 19 See " Encompassing Themes and Archetypal Images " in: Stu-
by Bauch and Timpel) may be reconciled was said by H. van de Waaldi in onore di Giusta Nicco Fasola (Arte Lombarda, X, 1965, vol. fuori
op. cit. (note 4), p. 212. Tumpel considers the problem in his contri-abbonamento), pp. 275-284.
bution to Neue Beitrage zur Rembrandt-Forschung, Berlin (West) 20 Footnote 4.

14

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 t?

iC~'i"; ~~

:.~ ly:l~?.~l::tj
~i~;ii?S.?t?? ?:;-i;. ~-???? I~~
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4) Rembrandt, (( Landscape with the Story of the Good Samaritan )), coll. Czartoryski, Muzeum Narodowe, Krak6w
(National Museum, Cracow. Photo: Janusz Podlecki).

reality which repeats, which recurs while, as opposed to it, Perhaps so, if so conceived as to bring a universal moral
history includes any single non-recurring happening. Genre message to the observer.
then would be what has general, recurring features whereas Seen in this particular perspective, - as a universal alle-
history is individual, non-recurring, unique. This recalls the gory of human life - the category of genre becomes broader
well known definition of Aristotle where he opposed history and enables us to answer affirmatively the question whether
to poetry in the same way, considering poetry more philoso- Rembrandt ever painted genre. His pictures show old women
phical, because it speaks about universal, not individual reading, girls at their household chores, children with hunting
things and happenings 21. Is not then genre, a repeatable por- trophies [Fig. 5]. There is no reason to look upon such pic-
tion of reality, more philosophical than historical painting? tures as portraits of real individuals - ladies, girls or children.
Much more probably they resulted from observation of every-
day life. Rembrandt probably observed the day to day life in
21 Artistotle, Poetics, 1451 b, 3-8. his own household and each of these individuals might be
15

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 ''
contain a message on art theory 23. In the background of this
etching the artist shows his son Titus learning to walk with
the aid of a walking trainer and such an image both in Fran-
ciscus Junius and in Joost van den Vondel stands for praxis.
* ~~ ...-??"

9"

'' The two nude boys posing in the foreground are of course
'r well suited to represent artistic practice. In this way genre
turns out to be a message on art theory. Another case is the
: 41
Self-Portrait of Rembrandt in the National Gallery with the
~-~ ~Z
?i
large circles on the wall in the background. To draw a per-
fect circle has been since time immemorial considered to be
a proof of mastery in drawing and it seems that, as Broos
?;

wrtr, -i ~ ;I has shown, we have once again an allusion to artistic theory,

i

;r;;t
this time in portrait painting 24.
And it is precisely in this area that some very difficult
.2?-
problems I
have come up, which Bauch has studied, of distin-
*c~~~.~t? ?s?f
:.? ?? "' -
??
guishing portraits of contemporaries in historical garb which
i.

?-
he calls ( one figure history )) (einfigurige Historie) from what
are meant to be representations of historical figures. In his
9?:
"
;?

self-portraits Rembrandt sometimes appears as St. Paul or

i

i?

some other historical figure. His family, his son and father
also appear as historical characters. The whole numerous
group of the so-called oriental princes or dignitaries, of the
?*~:.

_ : ~9~ i 9Y 't4? rabbis and philosophers, hovers in no-man's land 25. That
may only go to show how inadequate our definitions of
5) Rembrandt, ((A Child iconographic
with genresthe
are. Hunting Trop
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. Recent developments in studies in the field of emblema-
tics, which were especially splendid in Holland, have unco-
vered more and more hitherto unknown meanings in the pic-
identifiable theoretically 22. But these pictures are neither por- tures and as a result many pictures have had to be moved
traits nor histories. They are most probably just glimpses of from classification in the non-historical category of genre to
life seen as allegories; old women reading prayer books as the one of allegory 26
personifications of piety, girls at their household chores as Our concept of a genre painting as something small and
allegories of industry or diligence, children at play, dead birds intimate is of course in contrast with monumental painting;
or animals as allegories of transience, from life to death, be- however it is sometimes difficult for us to find any place else
ginning to end. to put a picture than in these categories. For instance the 1 8th
A print from about 1 646 [Fig. 6] always considered to be century owner of the Polish Rider called it (( Cosaque A che-
a study or genre piece (as a matter of fact in most of the re- val >. We can hardly accept this now. Since the thorough re-
productions this etching is called Studies of Nudes) has been search done by Julius Held we see this picture - this time in
shown by the late Jan Emmens, poet and art historian, to agreement with its monumental shape - as being rich in

22 Tumpel, op. cit., 1969, pp. 178-180. Iandischen Malerei des 17. Jhdts, Herzog-Anton-Ulrich-M
23 Emmens, op. cit. (note 4), pr. 154-159. Braunschweig, 1978; Ars Emblematica, Muzeum Narodowe w
24 B.P.J. Broos, "The O of Rembrandt ", Simiolus, IV, 1970, p.
szawie, 1981; E. de Jongh, Zinne- en minnebeelden in de sc
150-184. kunst van de zeventiende eeuw, no place, 1967. Against this
25 See my lecture " Books of Wisdom and Books of Vanity ", in:
dency to overstress the emblematic meaning see Svetlana Al
In Memoriam J. G. van Gelder 1903-1980, Utrecht, 1982, pp.
The49-53,
Art of Describing. Dutch Art in the Seventeenth Century, C
59. London, 1983 (Especially the Appendix: "On the Emblematic In-
26 Exhibitions: Tot Lering en Vermaak, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam,
terpretation of Dutch Art ", pp. 229-233).
1976; Die Sprache der Bilder. Realitat und Bedeutung in der nieder-

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 . , o .... ..

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, -...- . '
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- ,,,,. .- - ?.-r .
T ,,,.. ? ;,, . . .

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-.I ,1.., .,*.', ?...

,, ",' .. .

-. . - :.
,,~ ~ ! _ _.."

., ~ ,.- . . ." . ... .

? " : - " , ---..' < . . ??

6) Rembrandt, (( Two Nude Boys and the Child with a

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 III

! , 4
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7) Rembrandt, ((Scholar N, Narodni Galerie, Prague.

symbolic and allegorical meanings. Campbell proposes that
we see it as a subject from religious history - the story of
the prodigal son - while more recent studies have gone back
to the original idea of its being a portrait 27 (Broos, Chro?-
cicki).
Another picture whose monumental format and character
defy attempts to classify it as a genre piece is the Prague
Scholar or Rabbi of 1634 [Fig. 7]. If such works are not por-
traits, where do they belong? So similar as they are to the
paintings of the scholar in his study, are they allegories of
wisdom, scholarship, or erudition in human or divine mat-
ters? The well known correspondance of the Italian collector
Ruffo in connection with the Aristotle painting, and what
was supposed to be its companion picture by Guercino

27 The recent contribution by Juliusz Chro'cicki (" Rembrandt's brandt and Persia, New York, 1983, pp. 59-91 and 133-144 (the Po-
lish Rider interpreted as " David before his encounter with the Philis-
Polish Rider. Allegory or Portrait? ", in Ars Auro Prior. Studia Joanni
Biatostocki Sexagenario Dicata, Warsaw, 1981, pp. 441-448) in- tines ").
cludes previous bibliography. See now also Leonard J. Slatkes, Rem-

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shows that, by some patrons at least, the subject matter was
conceived of in a very broad way. These old scholars were
simply called Philosophers or Astronomers in the XVIIth cen-
tury 28
In the works of the later period of Rembrandt's art the dif-
ficulties of interpretation increase because of the disappear-
ance of those gestures which so vividly denote speaking in
the early and high period of the master. Kurt Bauch and later
Julius Held in a paper devoted to this problem stressed the
importance of the spoken work in the aesthetic structure of
Rembrandt's oeuvre 29. In the later period there is a silence in
Rembrandt's world. In a posthumously published essay Erwin
Panofsky gave an - as always - pertinent formulation of this
feature in Rembrandt's art connecting it with the tradition of
Early Netherlandish painting:
((In the representational arts the introspective tendency
clearly announces itself in such North Netherlandish painters
as Dirc Bouts and Geertgen tot Sint Jans as early as the fif-
teenth century. And what may be called the eloquence of si-
lence found fulfillment in Rembrandt's late works, particularly
when the stories told in the Old Testament are rendered in
such a way that all physical action is suppressed and only
psychological situations remain 30.
Dutch painting of the XVIIth century, considered from the
XIXth century on to be a mirror of nature, in our present per-
spective appears to be at least just as much a mirror of ideas
and a lesson in morals, an expression of the rules of a de-
cent, Christian life. Rembrandt's art in his late works with
their contemplative silence has an intense spiritual content,
expressed without dramatic movement and completely
concentrating on inward experience. In as much as Rem-
brandt shared with his contemporaries the common emblem-
atic language of signs and visual topoi, in several of his,
especially later, works he achieved a silent expression of hu-
man feelings and thoughts without the conventional tradi-
tional means more easily understandable not only to his own
contemporaries but to later scholarly investigators as well. It
is therefore quite right that we constantly try to redefine the
meaning of his works for us. And it is rewarding to look
back on the history of resarch over the span of one man's
lifetime to see that such considerable progress has been
made.

28 See J. Held, Rembrandt's Aristotle, op. cit. in footnote 4 and 111-125.

the older literature quoted there. 30 Erwin Panofsky, " Comments on Art and the Reformation
29 Julius Held, " Das gesprochene Wort bei Rembrandt ", in:
Symbols in Transformation. Iconographic Themes at the Time
Neue Beitrage zu Rembrandt Forschung, Berlin (West), 1973, pp.Reformation, Princeton, N.J., 1969, p. 13-14.

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