Rembrandt the thinker:
The structural conception of Rembrandt's
early pictures
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The Presentation of Jesus in the
Temple
1627
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This structural conception serves partly to reconcile the events
— at least, those preceding the brutal blow - with the fact that
their portrayal in the picture is motionless. The reconstructing
fantasy of the observer need not detach itself quite so far from
that which is portrayed in the picture as is necessary with
representations showing only a single moment in the sequence of
events. Indeed, we can say that his fantasy can return again and
again step by step to the picture so as to follow the sequence of
events.
A particular role is played by the lance-wielding warrior in the
right foreground. He is pausing for a moment, while everything else
takes place around him. He is no less involved in the events than
the other protagonists: he is keeping watch. However, this watch
only becomes clear when one understands his posture as one of
temporary motionlessness. His posture of temporary duration finds
itself in unison for precisely this space of time with the
motionless-ness of its pictorial portrayal, without losing its sense
of taking part in the action. This in turn points to a further
element in the structural conception of Rembrandt's early pictures.
If the artist has free choice of subject-matter, then his choice
says something about the matters of concern which he pursues with
his structural conception. It was not long before quieter scenes
emerged alongside the dramatically intensified depictions of events,
such as the first version of The Presentation of Jesus in the
Temple and Two Scholars Disputing (Peter and
Paul?). These scenes are also dramatic, in that they
portray human acts. However, they are not always characterized as
climax. It is true that the uplifted hands of the prophetess Hannah
in the first example can be regarded as an expression of momentary
surprise; however, it is the gesture of astonishment and blessing
that lingers for a moment which predominates. All of the other
figures can similarly maintain their depicted postures for a time,
precisely because they are participating in the event. Similarly
with the gestures of the two disputing scholars -in the second
example - we are concerned again with lingering postures of
temporary duration. In both cases, the importance of the event lies
in communication, in speech, in the spoken word. The formation of
such dialogue scenes epitomizes a further fundamental theme of
Rembrandt's structural conception.
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Two Scholars Disputing (Peter and
Paul?)
1628
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The spoken word — or, to be more exact, the gestures accompanying a
conversation - offer Rembrandt the possibility of depicting dramatic
action pictorially in such a manner that conflict with the static
nature of the picture is significantly less than in the case of the
turbulent scenes of action. The event of a conversation does not
amount merely to the acts of speaking and hearing. Rather, a
conversation encompasses a multitude of actions. One example of this
may be seen when the listener follows the speaker's train of
thought, either agreeing or disagreeing with him; another involves
the attempt to object to what the speaker is saying; and so forth.
Nor does a conversation consist of a constant flow of speech, but -
to an equal extent - of pauses where one thinks about what has been
said, or waits for an answer. It is exactly at such moments that the
course of a conversation can reach its highest density - in mutual,
communicative silence. In the course of his creative work, Rembrandt
was to develop the many different kinds of nuance with respect to
mutual participation in a word, with ever new accents and a
sharpness of expression such as constantly gives rise to admiration.
It can be noticed at this point that the wealth of nuances opened up
through the gestures of temporary duration would grow and grow. The
stage would ultimately be reached in the late work at which the
complexity of the expressive gestures was such that it is no longer
possible to find words with which to describe the wealth that they
offer.
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The
Apostle Paul in Prison
1627
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A third leitmotif of Rembrandt's structural conception becomes
apparent when one examines the great number of pictures either
containing only one figure or at least totally determined by a
single figure. An early example is the Stuttgart painting The
Apostle Paul in Prison from 1627, in which Rembrandt
depicts the apostle sitting on his bed, sunk in thought. Totally
absorbed in his writing, he has placed one hand under his chin,
while the other, holding his quill, rests on the leaves of an open
book which Paul is holding on his knees. In the painting The
Prophet Jeremiah Mourning over the Destruction of Jerusalem,
we see a bearded old man brooding at the foot of a mighty column,
propping his elbow on a massive tome as he mourns. A shattered
temple and the ruins of a town in flames can be made out in the
distance, along with figures perhaps attempting to rescue something
or flee. Both pictures have in common that the portrayed figure is
not merely placed before the observer's eyes but is shown engaged in
an activity, as with the figures in the scenes that have been
examined up to now. The individual figure in these pictures is also
bound up in the course of an event. In this way, the portrayal of
the individual figure itself becomes a history painting, even though
the action within which the event takes place is purely internal in
nature.
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 The
Prophet Jeremiah Mourning over the Destruction of Jerusalem
1630
Oil on panel, 58,3 x 46,6 cm
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
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In doing this, Rembrandt is adding a further important
characteristic. In the depiction of Jeremiah, the inner action is
not seen in the aforementioned minor figures: as with Paul's quill
and the paper on which the apostle has written, these reveal merely
the content of the activity. It is only from the posture of the
figure that the observer grows aware of the action - that of
brooding itself. It is at this point that the manner in which
Rembrandt makes use of the possible effects of this posture upon the
observer becomes crucial. It is not only a question of the
observer's registering intellectually the inner activity of the
figure in the picture through the posture with which he is
confronted. Having grasped the content of this contemplation or this
mourning, he then begins himself to ponder over what it is that the
person portrayed is meditating upon - the apostle's letter, the
destruction of Jerusalem. What is important here is not so much the
respective content of each picture but rather that the observer
should feel himself stimulated to such meditation, that he can make
the transition to performing himself in front of the picture the
inner activity which he recognizes in the figure in the picture. In
this way, it is indeed possible for him to some extent to experience
a process through his own contemplative activity, one which can take
place in the picture as little as can visible movement. In contrast
to visible movement, however, the activity recognized here in the
picture is of the same nature as the activity that recognizes it. The cited
pictures represent no special cases. It is in precisely this sense that
Rembrandt depicts his mother reading, dressed in the same costume as that in
which the prophetess Hannah was portrayed previously (Rembrandt's Mother
as the Biblical Prophetess Hannah).
She, too has a book on her knees. Her flat hand is laid upon the paper, in order
that her eyes may follow the tips of her fingers along the lines. The observer
is also able to look at the open book and decipher Hebrew characters. In
noticing this, however, he has already begun to some extent to engage in the
same activity as that of the figure in the picture. The motifs of the inner
activity involved in reading, contemplation, pondering, mourning or meditation
may be identified solely through gestures that quietly continue. Rembrandt was
to render the character of quiet duration revealed by these gestures equally
fruitful for the pictorial representation of events.
It is of course true that other painters, both contemporaries of Rembrandt and
those preceding him, also depicted these various gestural characteristics.
However, Rembrandt succeeded from the very beginning in forming the gestures and
facial expressions of his figures in such a way that they give the impression of
being so wrapped up in what they are doing as to be lost to the world. This is
especially true of the last-named type. It seldom occurs in the
depiction of actions of quiet duration that the observer senses that
the figure is aware of being watched. This characteristic of
obliviousness to the world around one increases the impression of
"naturalness" in the attitude of the figures: they create a direct
effect to a high degree, despite the actual mediation of art. It
goes without saying that the actions of quiet duration present the
least contradiction to the static nature of their pictorial setting.
Finally, there is a motif which is deserving of special mention
here, since it will ultimately be seen at the end of the artist's
development as being of even greater importance than the depiction
of the word. We are concerned here with the motif of watching, of
being an eyewitness, of becoming aware - in brief, the motif of
observation itself in every conceivable internal and external
aspect.
This in turn leads us back to the representations of multi-figure
events. Figures are to be found in almost all of these scenes,
themselves observing the central action - amazed, critical,
approving, but not interfering in what is taking place. The motif of
the observer in the picture is no invention of Rembrandt's; in all
probability, he took over this traditional compositional component
from Lastman. However, he develops it in his art into a most
important factor in his structural conception. Discussion of the
observer in the picture has often seen him as a figure who
represents a mediation between the observer in front of the picture
and the event depicted in the scene itself. The observer sees not
only the event itself but also the manner in which others see it.
And it is especially true that the observer experiences reality
through the act of observation, a reality which he can experience as
the one which the figures in the picture are executing. Rembrandt
was later to discover previously unexhausted possibilities in this
representational structure. In his final works, this was to
determine not only the structural conception but ultimately even the
appearance of the picture itself.
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 Rembrandt's Mother as the Biblical Prophetess Hannah
1631
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The Angel Leaving Tobias and His Family
1637 |
First of all, however, it should be noticed how Rembrandt combines fierce
gesticulations, a dialogue's lingering gestures of temporary duration, and
quietly continuing actions in the course of the following years to create scenes
of ever-increasing complexity. A whole spectrum of individual and collective
actions is to be seen in the 1631 Presentation of Jesus in the Temple, all working together to mutually intensify their effect.
Luke's Gospel tells us of Simeon, the old man to whom it had been revealed that
he would not die before he had seen the Lord with his own eyes. It was with this
expectation that he had stayed on in the temple. When Mary and Joseph wished to
dedicate their firstborn child to the temple, as the custom of the Law required,
Simeon, recognizing the child, took it in his arms, pronouncing the words of his
deliverance: "Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you now dismiss your servant
in peace. For my eyes have seen your salvation ..." (Luke 2, 22—38). Rembrandt's
sweeping view reveals the event at its climax, depicting the occurrence of the
miracle. It is first and foremost the figures in the centre of the picture, the
kneeling parents and the prophetess Hannah, her hand raised, who are involved in
the happening. A contrast is presented by the many people portrayed in the
background, distributed throughout the further expanse of the temple, coming and
going in pairs or groups. Some of them take no notice of the incident, while the
attention of others, such as the crowd around the High Priest on his throne at
right, is drawn to the event from afar. As in The Blinding of Samson,
four male figures are portrayed in a succession, in such a way as to depict the
phases of approaching the child. The head right at the back under
Hannah's hand, the approaching man wearing a high hat, the man
standing next to the parents, and finally a man bending over the
kneeling Simeon's shoulder from behind — they all serve to establish
a transition between the customary temple bustle in the background
and the central scene, thereby emphasizing the unique nature of the
main event. It is clear that the moment in which Simeon speaks the
words represents the climax of the incident. The culmination scene
is encountered here as a kind of dialogue in the form of prayer.
However, the effects of the external action are still predominant,
while those of the gestures of quiet duration are as yet of little
consequence. The event is presented in this structural conception
predominantly as an external happening.
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 Presentation of Jesus in the Temple
1631
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The combination of the various gestural characteristics at the
climax of an event, in the representation of which the forms of the
external action continue to predominate, can also be seen in the
five scenes depicting the events of the Passion painted by Rembrandt
on commission for Prince Frederik Hendrik and on which he was to
work until the end of the 1630s. In contrast, the
1630/31 painting of The Raising of Lazarus offers one of the most striking examples of Rembrandt's allowing the
drama to culminate not in actions in motion but predominantly in the
lingering gestures of temporary duration of the spoken word.
Among those few scenes which, while not conceived with the
culmination of the event in mind, nevertheless bring the various
characters involved in the depicted event into interaction with each
other, may be numbered the etching mentioned at the start, The
Good Samaritan. One may possibly be unable to
completely follow Goethe's argument when he claims that the man
rescued by the Samaritan, who is being helped from the latter's
horse, recognizes in the figure with the feather in his cap - in the
window to the left - the robber who has attacked him; nonetheless,
it is clear that the whole is developing as a dialogue scene. The
man with the feather in his cap belongs to those spectators so
characteristic of Rembrandt's pictures. The woman drawing water from
the well is not involved; rather, she is going about her normal,
everyday business. In this respect, even the defecating dog in the
foreground has a meaningful part to play. Here, too, banal and
unusual events are combined to create an overall happening, one
necessarily involving every pictorial element.
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The Raising of the Cross
1633
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 Deposition from the Cross
1633
Oil on panel, 89,5 x 65 cm
Alte Pinakothek, Munich
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Descent from the Cross
1634
Oil on canvas, 158 x 117 cm
The Hermitage, St. Petersburg
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The Entombment of Christ
1636-39
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The Resurrection of Christ
1635-39
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The Raising of Lazarus
1631
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Rembrandt's structural conception is not only concerned with the fashioning of
his figures' facial expressions and gestures; it also extends to the scene of
the action, to the open landscape, and most of all to his interiors. It is
important to notice, however, that the arrangement of the spatial elements
appears restrained in favour of the figures participating in the action. In the
case of The Ass of Balaam Balking before the Angel, the cloud from which
the angel is emerging covers almost the entire background. In The Blinding of
Samson, the space around the figures is rendered indeterminable through
the tent hangings; The Presentation of Jesus in the Temple achieves a
similar effect by means of a huge baldachin, together with an enormous temple
hall which, while only recognizable thanks to certain details, is nevertheless
of totally indeterminable proportions. Whether intentionally or not, the
perspective in this latter painting, in which the principal characters are
presented as if onstage, is not uniform; in addition, the figures comprising the
central group are not shown to the same scale as the others, but are
considerably larger. It is only rarely that the location of the
observer within the depicted spatial environment can be
reconstructed. In The Sacrifice of Isaac, the
observer is given a particularly clear impression that the distance
from him to the protagonists has been removed, as though the
foreground had been taken away from a classical picture composition
of foreground, middle distance and background. Scenes with developed
foregrounds, such as The Good Samaritan, are
to be found far less frequently. The scenic expanse in the early
works often serves merely as a backdrop to as effective a
presentation as possible of the figures participating in the action.
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The Raising of Lazarus
1632
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The same may be said of the illumination of the depicted space. The
important elements in the action are illuminated in a particularly
effective manner. On the whole, it is only those figures functioning
as participants in the action -and, even of them, only those parts
of the body such as are of particular importance - that are
illuminated. Everything else, and especially the surrounding
expanse, is placed in shadow. If one disregards for the moment the
admittedly influential artistic traditions taken up by Rembrandt -
one need only mention the name of Caravaggio here - it can be seen
that his concern is obviously to manipulate the illumination in such
a way as to dramatize additionally the action of the figures and
direct the observer to a greater extent to the "passions".
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The illumination of the early scenes has a demonstrative, exhibitory character.
However, it usually passes unnoticed that the direction of the light in such
pictures only rarely accords with those lighting situations such as would occur
naturally in the given circumstances. Thus, the best explanation for the
lighting in The Presentation of Jesus in the Temple would be one of
sunlight falling on the kneeling figures through a window in the roof of the
temple. However, the only possible justification for the gloom to be seen in the
expanse of the temple around the figures is that the temple in fact has no other
windows besides the one mentioned above. We will observe other examples of this
later. It has already emerged here that the illumination does not enable the
observer to comprehend an objective space with its own continued existence
independent of the figures. The illumination is itself a contributory part of
the action. The light acts in dramatic fashion here, providing sharp
illumination or darkening effects, in accordance with criteria that are not
empirical but in accordance with those governing the actions of the figures. To
some extent, the light itself becomes a vehicle of the action. To avoid
confusion, it should be stated that what we are concerned with here is not yet a
visible bright-dark pattern on the picture's surface; rather, all that we are
dealing with here is the representational depiction of light, a light which -
following its nature - only shines when energy is converted and maintains its
illumination, in the same way that the violinist must use his bow to
maintain the vibration of a string, if it is to be heard. Light is
an agent. Rembrandt, in depicting the illumination as a sudden
spotlight, is showing it as if engaged in external motion. In other
contexts, he portrays it as an illumination of long-lasting
duration. Light in his landscapes turns the scene itself into a
situation in transition. Rembrandt's landscapes do not document the
appearance of hills, paths and trees. The atmospheric event, the
change in illumination, transfer the topography into a sphere of
experience given life by each observer in his own individual manner.
In conceiving the structure of his dramatic representations of
illumination, Rembrandt discovered the transitory, progressive,
temporal elements of light. This discovery would later enable him to
structure the pictorial world itself as something transitory. The
appearance of quiet duration, as encountered in his late works,
would ultimately open up for him the mystery of the act of
revelation itself.
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The Presentation in the Temple
1640-41 |
