REMBRANDT and the PASSION the Fitzw Illiam M Useum
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REMBRANDT AND THE PASSION Prints by Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669) All the prints in this exhibition illustrate the subject of prints in this exhibition, however, concentrate on the Christ’s Passion, from the Last Supper to his Passion themes that appealed most to Rembrandt and appearance to his Disciples after the Resurrection. The his audience as individual subjects, and it is the subject had been treated many times in Northern repetition of those subjects at various stages of European prints, often as a complete series of a more- Rembrandt’s career that allows us to determine the or-less established set of episodes from the story. consistency or development of his approach. Rembrandt had a keen interest in earlier prints, and In many ways the least typical of the prints on would have been familiar with the three famous display are two of the most ambitious in terms of size Passion sets by Dürer and the set by Lucas van Leyden. and composition. These are Christ before Pilate of 1635-6 The usual subjects were: The Man of Sorrows; The Last and The Descent from the Cross of 1633. Here Rembrandt Supper; The Agony in the Garden; The Betrayal of Christ; is evidently competing with the Flemish example set a Christ before Caiaphas; Christ before Pilate; The Flagellation; few years earlier by Rubens, who oversaw the engraving Christ crowned with Thorns; Ecce Homo (Christ Presented to the of large ambitious plates after his altarpieces in People); Pilate washing his Hands; The Bearing of the Cross; Antwerp and elsewhere. Recent examination of the The Crucifixion; The Lamentation; The Descent from the Cross; paper used for Rembrandt’s two prints has shown that Christ in Limbo (The Harrowing of Hell); and The the proofs were almost certainly printed in Leiden by Resurrection. Sometimes the Passion subjects in these Van Vliet. This lends strong support to the theory that sets were prefaced by Old Testament subjects and these plates were etched and engraved in Leiden by episodes from Christ’s Nativity, such as The Presentation Van Vliet on commission from Rembrandt, and that in the Temple, and sometimes the sets continued with Rembrandt was only responsible for the signature and Christ’s appearances after his Resurrection: Christ finishing touches in drypoint after the plates were sent appears to his Mother; Christ Appears to the Magdalen (Noli to him in Amsterdam.2 The designs are by Rembrandt, me tangere); Christ appears to his Disciples at Emmaus; and although the use of complex Baroque compositional The Ascension. ploys, which recall Rubens, was rejected in his later Throughout his life, Rembrandt painted, drew work and replaced with something more personal. or etched certain of these subjects (The Agony in the Already in these two plates the concentration on the Garden, Christ presented to the People (Ecce Homo), The facial expressions (which are exaggerated by the heavy- Crucifixion, The Descent from the Cross, Christ carried to the handedness of Van Vliet’s touch with the burin) Tomb, The Entombment, Christ at Emmaus and Christ emphasise Rembrandt’s interest in the human appearing to his Disciples), returning to them after a dramaCthe personal reactions to the scene. number of years, but he never made a complete set of Unfortunately, the compositions tend to detract from Passion prints. In his youth (in the 1630s) he made five the communication of personal expression and paintings for Prince Frederick Henry of Orange, emotion, while the forceful details of individuals showing The Raising of the Cross, The Deposition, The detracts from emotional effect of the composition as a Entombment, The Resurrection and The Ascension; and late in whole. In the later Passion prints he found ways of life, when he seems to have become interested in making this drama more intimate and more dramatic. creating Biblical prints in series, he may have been In following the story of Rembrandt’s intending to complete a series of Passion etchings continuing interest in the Passion we see that it was which remained unfinished. In 1654, besides creating through his development of more personal techniques five or six small-scale prints of scenes illustrating the and effects of printmaking that he found the means to childhood of Christ, he started on a series of larger express personal grief and spiritual distress with greater scale (210 x 160 mm) scenes of Christ’s life, which force. We only need to compare the Descent from the could have been intended as a Passion series. The Cross from the 1630s with the same subject in the later completed subjects were The Presentation in the Temple, Passion series from the 1650s (illustrated on front The Descent from the Cross by torchlight (see front cover); cover) to see this process at its extremes. In the later The Entombment and Christ at Emmaus)1. Most of the print the faces are still visible, their tenderness The Fitzw illiam M useum suggested by the subtle touch of the artist’s drawing, by offerC’Will you have this man released?Cgathered the understated gesture. But the larger meaning is told immediately in front and below him. The plate is drawn as much by the dramatic light effects, as by telling entirely in drypointCthe lines scratched directly into the narrative details such as the removal of the nail still plate with a needle rather than being etched with fixing Christ’s foot to the cross. The ink left on the acidCand the immediacy of the drawing is nowhere so surface of the plate cloaks the shadows in a more impressive as in the fresh immediacy of the crowd, with profound darkness than the mechanical heaviness of many of the figures characterised from the rear without Van Vliet’s engraving tool could achieve, whilst the showing their faces. A recent survey of existing crucial figure group is lit on various levels, both impressions has shown that a large number were physical and metaphysical: the light comes to us printed in this state, a few of them on luxury oriental because this area of the plate was wiped clean, leaving paper or vellum that would have appealed to print the paper to shine bright; we see that there is light connoisseurs, but most on the European paper that because of the torch illuminating the winding sheet; we Rembrandt used for standard impressions for large infer that there is light, even in this moment of runs for general sale4. After these were printed, profound darkness, because of the sacrifice of Christ. however, Rembrandt changed the plate, burnishing Rembrandt’s ability to dramatise these away the figures of the crowd and replacing them at the moments of universal crisis on a human scale explains bottom with a bearded sculptural figure between two the appeal to him of subjects like The Agony in the Garden arches. This mysterious figure has yet to be explained of 1657. The angel comforting Christ is one of several convincingly, and in fact its impact was reduced in the aspects of the print recalling the etching of Abraham’s subsequent state, which Rembrandt signed and dated, Sacrifice of about two years earlier. As with The Descent and printed in large number for sale on European from the Cross by torchlight (see front cover), it is the paper. By far the most striking effect of the reworking posture of the figures that expresses their emotional is to place the viewer in the role of the crowd, at once state rather than their faces. In the few sketches related making the print more intimate, yet more powerful in to this print, Rembrandt started off with more its universal impact: we are all guilty of condemning emphasis on the figures’ faces, shifting them around Christ. until he decided on this arrangement with the angel’s Why did Rembrandt rework the plate? There face almost hidden, and Christ’s face (drawn with just a is probably no single answer. On one level he was few strokes) tilted away. This dramatises the psychology probably concerned with creating a more personal of the angel’s intervention more effectively than in the depiction of the meaning of the subject. On another, he drawings where Christ has collapsed towards the angel was giving the plate a new commercial lease of life, and into his supporting arms. The angel arrives with reviving it with fresh drypoint lines and creating a new comfort to strengthen Christ’s prayer rather than just to version that collectors might prefer or want to buy in lend physical support. Again narrative details such as addition to the version with the crowd. In any case, the the arresting soldiers approaching in the distance are printing history suggests that it is best to see it as a new subservient to the overall mood. The spiritual meaning print, rather than as a correction of the original. of the print is dramatised by the surrounding landscape, Rembrandt was making use of the ability of with the passing shadows of a moon emerging or printmaking to create successive images from the same disappearing behind clouds. These light effects are plate. Again he may not have been expecting the two achieved by the soft shading of ink trapped by drypoint versions to be seen side-by-side, but it is certainly true burr, but also by ink left on the surface of the plate that in this exhibition the radical confrontation of the when printing certain impressions. Although reworked version is heightened by our awareness of its Rembrandt would not necessarily have expected us to predecessor, and the sophistication of this mobile be looking at the varied lighting effects achieved in narrative may not have been lost on Rembrandt’s several different impressions, the ephemeral quality of contemporaries.