RKD STUDIES

21 REMBRANDT.

With these two prestigious colorists we find tones that are at once equally imaginative and precise, like a burst of light in certain parts, in some places like a reflection of the surrounding colors, in others like the transparency of chiaroscuro. Giorgione could also have painted this scarlet fabric punctuated by powerful halftones. The incised sleeve of the drummer, with its bronze harmonies, is entirely reminiscent of the raised arm of Titian's Daughter, who in the painting in the Berlin Museum is carrying a fruit bowl [14], and a cassette on the replica, which belongs to Lord Grey and comes from the former Orleans gallery [15]. Other heads, that of the sergeant, above the drummer, that of the bearded man, above the red musketeer, have something of Van Dijk's,¹ in his Flemish period, but with more firmness and depth.

Surprising! Rembrandt, sometimes reminiscent of the Italian and Spanish masters, never resembles Rubens. However, these two neighbors are considered by most French writers to be of the same school; they often lump them together under the heading of "great Flemings" or "great Netherlanders".

In no school of painting do we find two painters more different from each other than Rembrandt and Rubens: they are the exact opposite: one paints with concentration, the other showcases; one seeks characteristic simplicity, the other ...

22 MUSEUM OF AMSTERDAM.

... ambitious lushness; one handles his effects carefully, the other scatters them on the four corners of his canvases; one is wholly within, the other wholly without; one is mysterious, profound, elusive and makes you retreat into yourself: any painting by Rembrandt, even if you know it from descriptions or prints, always causes an indefinable surprise when you see it for the first time; it is never what you expected from it; you don't know what to say; you keep quiet and ponder; – the other is expansive, gripping, irresistible and makes you blossom: any painting by Rubens communicates joy, health, an outward exuberant zest for life. For Rembrandt you meditate, for Rubens you get excited.

Both are great magicians, but they used completely opposite methods.

They are to each other what Vinci and Veronese are to the Italians.

For those who know Rembrandt well, it is no paradox to say that he has certain qualities of Vinci; that his agony, like Leonardo's, is the expression of intimate physiognomy; that he sought, found and engraved this important character on types from the North, as Leonardo did on the beautiful types of Italy. In this respect, he has unmistakably something of the painter of the Mona Lisa [16]. We can readily agree that his equivalents in the Italian school are rather Correggio, Giorgione, and Titian, than Leonardo, just as ...

23 REMBRANDT.

... in the Spanish school, the one closest to him is Velazquez.

As for Rubens, he is the brother of Paul Veronese, except that the types they portray differ here too. Their instincts, their methods, their results, their geniuses are the same.

It never occurred to anyone that Rembrandt and Rubens had no relationship with each other, although they were contemporaries; for although they were thirty years apart, Rembrandt nevertheless became famous as soon as he arrived in Amsterdam in 1630, or at least from 1632 after the Anatomical Lesson, and Rubens did not die until 1640. The two masters, who lived not far from each other, in Amsterdam and Antwerp, could have known each other. There was a fairly frequent exchange between the Antwerp and Amsterdam schools. Among others, Jan Lijvens, Rembrandt's fellow student, friend and follower, also studied under the influence of Rubens.² However, it does not appear that the Flemish master and the Dutch master exchanged any sign of sympathy. True, Rembrandt did have in his precious collection a box of sketches by Rubens and a selection of engravings after Rubens, in addition to his works by Raphael, Michelangelo and other great artists;³ but Rubens, who nevertheless owned several Dutchmen in addition to his Veroneses and his Titians, did not have a single sketch by Rembrandt.⁴ Perhaps the half-Italian ...

24 MUSEUM OF AMSTERDAM.

... Fleming did not properly appreciate his naive and wild colleague from the liberated provinces.

The Amsterdam Museum's catalog lists only two lines about Rembrandt's masterpiece. "No. 228. De Amsterdamse Schutterij, bekend en vermaard als de Nachtwacht (The Amsterdam Civic Guard, known and renowned as the Night Watch). That's all (1).

Rembrandt's second painting in the Amsterdam museum is titled in the catalog: "Een Regentenstuk, bekend onder den naam van de Staalmeesters’ (A Regents's Piece, known by the name of the Syndics" [17].⁵ The Dutch call it: De Staalmeesters, the masters of lead,⁶ those who attach the mark, the sealed lead mark, or the metal plate [on the fabric] to establish in the clothmakers' guild the origin of the fabric or the payment of certain duties. It comes from the guild's premises (the Staalhof, in the Staalstraat) and, like the Night Watch, belongs to the city of Amsterdam.

With these Staalmeesters, which is dated 1661,⁷ with the Night Watch (1642), with the Anatomical Lesson (1632), which we will find in the museum of The Hague [18],⁸ owns Holland, which has lost almost all of Rembrandt's work 500 paintings in number,⁹ at least exactly the three masterpieces that best characterize the successive ways of the master. His three manners, ...

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(1) The new cat. gives a full description, with some documents relating to it. – The same is true of the Syndics, which follow below.

Interleaved page

The small copy (sketch) of the Nightwatch (p. 18) is today in the National Gallery.¹⁰

Among the students who worked with Rembr.

25 REMBRANDT.

... if you like: the first quite sober, a little cold, very real; the second, extremely poetic in its originality and whimsicality; the third, broad and abundant, self-confident, utterly masterly. The Louvre has a painting from this year, 1661: The Evangelist Saint Matthew (no. 406) [19]. From that date, Rembrandt did not change; in the years before his death (1669), only he exaggerated a little and increased the extent of this practice.

The Syndics' canvas is nearly 9 feet wide by nearly 6 feet high; I do not have the exact dimensions; Smith gives in English measurements: 5 feet 11 inches high and 9 feet wide (1). The life-size figures can be seen up to the knees. The Dutch call this kind of composition kniestuk; the Germans Kniestück; the English kneepiece.

There are five syndics. Three of them sit behind a table that occupies part of the foreground and intersects the three figures at chest height. This table, covered with a large, reddish oriental rug, almost exits the painting. The man sitting on the right, with his body slightly tilted, holds in his left hand a bag lying on the table, probably the bag with the lead marks. In front of the two ...

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(1) The new cat. gives as dimensions 1.85 high by 2.74 wide.¹¹