The Jewish Bride, Rembrandt: Analysis, Interpretation читать ~5 мин.

The Jewish Bride by Rembrandt Interpretation of Dutch Baroque Biblical Portrait of Isaac and Rebecca MAIN A-Z INDEX

The Jewish BrideBy Rembrandt.Regarded as one of theGreatest Paintings Ever.

ContentsDescription • Interpretation/Meaning of The Jewish Bride • Analysis of Other paintings by Rembrandt

Description Artist : Rembrandt (1606-69) Medium : Oil painting Genre : Portrait art Movement : Dutch Baroque Location : Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.

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Art AppreciationTo appreciate pictures byDutch Baroque artistslike Rembrandt, seeour educational essays:Art Evaluation and also:How to Appreciate Paintings.

This is another of Rembrandt’s great Baroque portraits which he completed during his last years. Like The Suicide of Lucretia (c.1666, Minneapolis Institute of Arts), it exemplifies the artist’s genius for expressing human emotion on canvas, and is rightly considered to be one of the greatest portrait paintings of his final period. The painting acquired its current name during the early 19th century, when a Dutch art dealer described the subject as that of a Jewish father giving a necklace to his daughter on her wedding day. Today, while the identities of the two people remain obscure, most art historians believe them to be Isaac and his wife Rebecca from the Old Testament. A highlight of Dutch 17th century painting from the permanent collection of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, the picture is one of the few real expressions of love created by Dutch Realist artists during the Baroque era.

Composition As in the case of the earlier Night Watch (1642), The Jewish Bride (Het Joodse bruidje) is another misnamed masterpiece which would be insensitive to rename. Of course, the painting does not represent an authentic illustration of a Jewish bride and bridegroom from the Bible so much as a romantic, exotic portrayal of a cultural rite which was outside the experience of a predominantly Christian society.

Whether or not he intended it as a straightforward piece of Biblical art, there is no doubt however, that Rembrandt was depicting an intimate relationship between his two subjects. The man places his hand on the woman’s bosom, while she moves instinctively to protect her modesty, in keeping with the new aesthetics of Protestant Reformation Art (c.1520-1700). Yet both show every sign of tenderness towards each other, so this is hardly a typical seduction scene (a usual enough topic in Dutch Realist genre painting).

Subject As mentioned above, the theme most widely accepted by modern scholars is Isaac embracing his wife Rebecca while being spied on by Abimelech (Genesis Chapter XXVI), a scene which Rembrandt had previously represented in a drawing. To summarize the Biblical narrative, Isaac (who was staying in the land of the Philistines) passes off Rebecca as his sister. One day, Abimelech, the Philistine King observes the couple making love in secret and guesses the truth. He reproves Isaac for the decption, chiding him that any man might have lain with Rebecca in all innocence, unaware of her married status, and would thus have brought dishonour on himself and his people. Whether Rembrandt saw any similarities between his Biblical couple and himself and Hendrickje, is not known. In all probability he was simply returning to his first love, namely painting Bible stories.

As an artist, Rembrandt himself was no stranger to voyeurism – see Susanna Surprised by the Elders (1647, Gemaldergalerie, Berlin), Bathsheba Holding King David’s Letter (1654, Louvre, Paris), A Woman Bathing (1654, National Gallery, London), and Aristotle Contemplating the Bust of Homer (1653, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York) – but in this painting he thrusts it into the background. The couple could scarcely be more covered up and they embrace each other almost chastely.

Mood In any event, the work is one of Rembrandt’s tenderest religious paintings – at once intimate and serene. As so often in his late period the forms are broad yet flattened, providing a screen on which countless overlapping brushstrokes of gold and scarlet are laid, the colours increasing or dying away in intensity as they move into or out of the light. Unusually, Rembrandt’s brilliance of colour increases significantly during his final years – though not in all his works, see the monochrome Suicide of Lucretia, for instance – see in particular, his fiery reds, golden yellows, delicate blues and olives, and rich deep blacks, comparable with Venetian Renaissance painting.