"A self-portrait at the age of thirty-four years" [1] was painted by Rembrandt in 1640 . It was a time when the lifetime glory of the artist reaches its zenith. In 1639, Rembrandt and Saskia moved to a new house bought for 13,000 guilders on the Yodenbreestraat, in the prestigious area of Amsterdam , where mainly wealthy merchants lived. He receives orders for paintings from the most influential and wealthy Dutch, stalter and representatives of the Trip families (“ Portrait of Maria Trip ”), de Graff and Witzen. Thanks, first of all, to etchings , his fame went beyond the borders of the Netherlands, his paintings are bought by collectors and royals of Europe, for example, King of England Charles I.
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| Rembrandt | ||
| Self portrait at the age of thirty-four . 1640 | ||
| Zelfportret | ||
| Oil on canvas . 102 × 80 cm | ||
| National Gallery , London | ||
| ( inv. ) | ||
Among dozens of self-portraits written by Rembrandt, this one stands out for its monumentality. Rembrandt on it demonstrates his social position. He is dressed in rich clothes with furs, a massive chain, jewelry. Glance melancholy, with the realization of his dignity. The background is neutral, all the attention of the viewer focuses on the figure of the artist.
In the lower right corner of the parapet, the signature of Rembrandt f is clearly visible. (Rembrandt fecit) and date. Below is the inscription conterfeycel (or rather conterfeytsel), which is translated from Old Dutch means “portrait”.
An important circumstance is that the clothes on the artist are characteristic of the beginning of the 16th century, Rembrandt not only showed his status to contemporaries in a self-portrait, but also challenged the great artists of the 16th century: Dürer , Titian and Raphael . It is known that Rembrandt highly appreciated Dürer and collected a collection of his engravings.
In April 1639, Rembrandt was present at the auction when the Portuguese collector Alfonso Lopez bought Raphael's painting “Portrait of Baltasar Castiglione”. A picture of Rembrandt is stored in Vienna with a sketch of this picture, where Rembrandt made a note on the margins that the picture was bought for a huge sum of 3,500 guilders at that time (from Rembrandt’s correspondence with the staff holder of the same year, it can be judged that Rembrandt then estimated his paintings at 600— 1000 guilders). Lopez, who lived in Amsterdam from 1637 to 1641, also owned Titian's painting "Portrait of Gerolamo (?) Barbarigo", which Rembrandt apparently knew well.
The first attempt to create a self-portrait in the style of the predecessors is an etching of 1639, it only takes Castiglione from Rembrandt’s head angled and the mirror position reflects Titian’s position (which was not the first time in creative competition with Titian: Europe was swimming in the opposite direction at Rembrandt’s than that of Titian; Rembrandt's “ Danae ” is deployed opposite to all of Titian's “ Danae ”).
In a self-portrait of 1640, the poses of the characters of the paintings of Dürer and Titian are repeated: all with their right hand rest on the parapet.
The x-ray of the picture shows that initially the fingers of the artist’s left hand were also on the parapet, and the collar had a more rounded shape.
- Portraits by predecessors
Dürer Self Portrait (1498)
Titian. Portrait of Gerolamo (?) Barbarigo (1505)
Raphael. Portrait of Balthasar Castiglione (1514-1515)
Filmography
- “Mirror of paradoxes. Self-portraits ”, a film by from the series“ Palettes ”(France, 1991).
Notes
- ↑ Michelle E. Rembrandt. T. 2: The great painter. - M .: BMM, 2009. - P. 39-40.
Literature
- A. Verzhbitsky. Rembrandt's work
- Melissa Ricketts. Rembrandt - Iris Press, 2006.
- David Bomford, Jo Kirby, Ashok Roy, Axel Rüger, and Raymond White. Art in the Making: Rembrandt. Yale University Press. 2006