Critical Fortunes of Rembrandt and Vermeer

today's lecture is critical fortunes of Rembrandt and Vermeer presented by Michels Oh associate professor in the Department of history of art and architecture at Boston University with a PhD in Fine Arts from Harvard Michael Zell is a scholar of the Dutch Golden Age in 2002 both his book reframing Rembrandt Jews and the Christian image in 17th century Amsterdam via the University of California Press and his Co edited book rethinking Rembrandt were published he has written articles and essays on a wide variety of Dutch arts including the in press exhibition catalog essay graphic images Rembrandt's printed nudes for 2016 his list of awards and accolades is commendable including a faculty award from the graduate student history of art and architecture association at BU in 2015 thank you all so much for joining us at this course it's always a pleasure of mine to see everybody here every Wednesday afternoon happy holidays I look forward to seeing you in the winter and spring and now please join me in welcoming our speaker Michaels Oh [Applause] thank you very much Jasmine for that very kind introduction and I have to say that it's really terrific to see all of you here it's in unfortunately quite a contrast to the experience that we're having in the humanities at universities where our enrollments have been plummeting in the past few years I think our history does a little better than English and some of the other humanities subjects but if you can encourage young people to think beyond stem and meet maybe steam to reintegrate the arts into science technology engineering and math I haven't had much success with my son who is a techno geek but maybe some of you will be able to get them back in the classroom so thank you for coming to this and again it really is a delight to see so many people turning out with this interest of course generated by Ronnie bears really spectacular world-class exhibition and I know that also giving the last of the talks in this long series of lectures I probably run the risk of repeating some of the information that you've already been given and so basically I'll ask your patience as I get through some of that material but hopefully it will also reinforce some key points both about Rembrandt and Vermeer so again right better get my water before it's too late now today Rembrandt and Vermeer are universally regarded as the greatest artists of 17th century Holland and must of course their headline status in this really glorious exhibition of class distinctions in which remember we've got only four Rembrandt's and two rumors among the 75 paintings on display and that also gives you a good sense of just how many artists were active in the Dutch Republic literally thousands producing an estimated 5 to 10 million artworks in the 17th century alone 5 to 10 million it's really astonishing and of course from that critical mass we get these extraordinary works that Ronnie Baer was able to bring together for you in Boston now while in some ways Rembrandt's and Vermeer's careers and works can be said to epitomize the characteristic features of what we call the Golden Age of Dutch art they're very different artists who offer us dramatically different at times even antithetical perspectives on Dutch artistic culture of the 17th century Rembrandt as you know was staggeringly prolific producing 340 surviving paintings according to the most recent and authoritative account that's in addition to about 209 the edging plates and here's Rembrandt's famous so-called hundred guild reprint or Christ preaching the nickname actually refers to the amount that impressions of this print were actually sold for in Rembrandt's own day which was an extraordinary amount of money for a small print Rembrandt got about a hundred gilding guilders for a life-sized portrait of the militiamen in the a Night Watch group portrait that we'll be looking at later so that just gives you an idea of how expensive his prints could be and again he produced about 290 plates from which thousands of impressions were actually pulled during his lifetime very many by himself of course but also many more were created from his place after his death in 1669 about fourteen hundred drawings that survived have been attributed to Rembrandt it as well including this one from the Rijksmuseum the vast majority of which are unrelated to more formal works of painting or printmaking and therefore we're also autonomous works of art on some level and an equal number of Rembrandt sheets actually just may have been lost the range of his subjects whoops I went the wrong way I skipped one the range of his subjects was also staggering in his paintings Rembrandt concentrated on self-portraits lucrative commissioned portraits including of course the exhibition painting the shipbuilder and his wife or Yan risin and his wife he Tian and prestigious history paintings of biblical scenes mythological subjects such as the life-size new Danny and historical narratives as a printmaker and a draftsman Rembrandt depicted a much broader range of themes in part to demonstrate his mastery over all established pictorial subjects and thus his qualification as a universal artist he asked or drew genre scenes of daily life including beggars and peasants the life of women and children this is one of my favorite drawings the crying boy the naughty child it's probably quite misogynistic to be saying that this is only about the life of women because of course as a father I know all too well what it's like dealing with a tantrum landscapes just the own stall which like most of Rembrandt's landscape prints and drawings actually depict the suburban countryside outside of Amsterdam the own file is an identifiable site that we still can locate today outside of the city half dress or nude models in the studio both women and men sketch seats sheets such as these studies of the head of Saskia and other heads where you see him actually embracing the possibilities of the etching medium as if it were actually drawing and then disseminating a sheet of drawn studies to a wider public animal pieces the really charming tiny little sleeping puppy still life expensive little shell and even erotica that's part of Rembrandt too enormous Lee ambitious productive and entrepreneurial Rembrandt was nothing short of a phenomenon in his own time he was famous from an early age in his hometown of Leiden for decades he was the preeminent artist in Amsterdam where he moved around 1631 to take advantage of the unprecedented artistic and economic opportunities offered by the metropolis and he was sought out by patrons from as far away as Sicily who must have known about his art through the distribution of his innovative and many prints the Aristotle with the bust of Homer which is on display in the Metropolitan Museum in New York we know was actually commissioned by a patron in the Sicilian city of Messina Don Antonio Ruffo who didn't even know what the subject of the picture was when it arrived in Messina direct from Brown studios so Ron Ron had a lot of leeway to come up with his own subject here and subsequently Ruffo also purchased from Rembrandt two more large scale paintings of Homer and Alexander the Great that were displayed in his gallery alongside major works of Italian Renaissance and Baroque painting that were available to him in Italy Vermeer on the other hand was a notoriously even strangely unproductive artist compared both to Rembrandt and most other Dutch artists of the 17th century who generally embraced the unprecedented opportunities offered by the booming Dutch art market for example there are more than a thousand surviving paintings by the landscape as yawns and home I think there's a painting by behind in the exhibition only about thirty-five paintings by Vermeer are accepted today and therefore of course it's a very great privilege to have no fewer than two out of those 35 Vermeer pictures in the exhibition and that really testifies through the curator Ronnie bear's extraordinary skills and presumably her persistence in getting those here to Boston for us ramírez total output probably amounted to no more than between 45 and 60 paintings as was proposed by the eminent economic historian John Michael Montes in contrast to Rembrandt Vermeer subjects are also quite narrowly focused after beginning his career with large-scale history paintings such as Christ in the house of Mary and Martha he concentrated primarily on modest sized cabinet paintings of genre subjects like the concerts which sorts was here in Boston until it was stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in 1990 hopefully one day of course it will be returned and it's not too damaged even though those rotten thieves cut it out it's frame so he concentrated mostly on these modestly scaled genre scenes with a handful of landscapes really cityscapes such as the famous view of Delft and a few allegorical subjects including the art of painting which we know Vermeer never sold his wife Caterina tried desperately and ultimately unsuccessfully to keep the picture out of the hands of Vermeer's creditors after his sudden and untimely death in 1675 keep in mind not a single drawing let alone a print has ever been securely attributed to Vermeer so the extent of his entire production over a career of twenty-two years is incredibly small it's probably not hard to imagine that Vermeer took his time while painting giving this exquisite optical effects and the jewel-like appearances he was able to achieve with his meticulous technique ramirez exceptionalism may be accounted for in part by his reliance on the support of an individual collector or art lover who probably provided Vermeer with an annual fee in exchange for the right to choose among his paintings at the end of year the Leiden artist Kara Dow famously enjoyed such an arrangement where the wealthy collector who paid him the substantial sum of five hundred guilders annually for the right of first refusal most likely Vermeer's patrons were peter from alvin and his wife maria ducking out usually we only identify fun evolve and as Vermeer's patron but in point of fact the Galvan's wife maria took note we know specifically in her own will bequeathed to Vermeer a sum of five hundred guilders which seems to be unprecedented for any artist in 17th century Holland because she left many other donations to charitable institutions which was very typical at the time but only this cases it to an artist so it's really the two of them both Peter and his wife Maria who probably owned 20 or 21 Vermeer paintings including the view of Delft and girl with a Pearl Earring can you imagine that collection in Delft 22 21 out of 35 right 35 paintings that we have today so that's something like two-thirds of what we have was there in a townhouse we don't know exactly which one in the relatively small city of Delft unlike Vermeer however GAO who also enjoyed one of these special arrangements with patron or supporter was a relatively productive painter so Vermeer's relationship with his patrons appears not only to have protected him from the pressures of the market but allowed him to devote himself fully to his creative impulses and experimentation as a result Vermeer never achieved the widespread recognition that Rembrandt self-consciously cultivated for himself most of the mare's paintings seem to have been in the possession of a small circle of connoisseurs and collectors in Delft which in Vermeer's time was also a relatively provincial City as we'll see there are records of a few visits by prominent 17th century collectors to see Vermeer in Delft but the support and protection Vermeer enjoyed of a sympathetic patron or collectors as will also see ultimately limited his reputation in his own time and into the 19th century even late in the 19th century so how did these two very different artists one of whom was almost lost the Oblivion of history come to epitomize the glories of the Dutch Golden Age as we define it and thus be accorded top billing in the exhibition class distinctions I'm going to try to answer that question by tracing their differing critical fortunes or receptions over the course of nearly four centuries to begin with Rembrandt it was actually Vermeer's senior by 26 years so he's an earlier generation Vermeer is younger in light of his celebrity status in his own time throughout Western Europe it should be no surprise to learn that Rembrandt has always be admired been admired by collectors and art critics but he also attracted a great deal of controversy and inspired some of the most vehement denunciations of art ever published as we'll see in 1664 five years before Rembrandt's death a German art lover compiled a list of what he called the most distinguished European painters praising Ram Brad as quote the miracle of our age Rembrandt was the only artist on his list to receive such an accolade at the twilight of his career and well after his bankruptcy in 1656 Rembrandt was therefore still recognized as a towering figure his recognition started very early when Rembrandt was only about 25 years old he was already been being hailed as a consummate artist by Constantin halcon's secretary to the stockholder Fredrik Hendrick in The Hague who you can see in the Thomas de Keyser portrait that it's also in the exhibition he's a very important cultural figure in 17th century Holland as well as an important statesman and he's going to come up repeatedly as I grow and run through my lecture - how can a highly cultured statesman poet connoisseur and amateur musician Rembrandt's early biblical painting Judas returning the pieces of silver from about 1629 which he must have seen on a visit to Rembrandt's Leyden studio surpass the achievements of even the legendary ancient masters he writes I would put this beside all the beauty that the ages have brought forth and I want to hold this up to those simpletons who claim and I have rebuked them on this point before that nothing is being created any longer or expressed in words that the ancients have not already created or expressed I maintain that no protogynous up Ellis or Perseus Greek painters of classical antiquity has ever produced nor ever could produce even if they were able to return to this world what has been achieved by a young man a Dutchman a beardless Miller I stand amazed even as I say this Bravo Rembrandt you can't get any better than that Rembrandt 25 years old beardless house and says and he says he's a beardless Miller because Rembrandt's father was a prosperous Miller by the 1640s after having achieved tremendous success in Amsterdam as a painter of dramatic history scenes and expressive portraits so we can return to yon rikuson and Crete yawns and the shipbuilder and his wife so this was from 1633 tremendous success in the period when Rembrandt is being inundated we know with portrait commissions and I think it is really a privilege to have this from the Queen's collection also here in Boston it's also in magnificent state of preservation as you probably have seen yourselves and the life-sized pendant portraits in the show that are part of the MFA's permanent collection of the minister Johannes Ellison and Maria Boca Nala from the next year 1634 so again Rembrandt is receiving these commissions one after another and there as you know life-size monumental works that a mere minister couldn't have afforded it's his son Johannes Junior who's a wealthy merchant in Amsterdam who orders the portraits from Rembrandt when his parents are visiting actually from Norwich and England so by this period Rembrandt's reputation was the kilt in 1650 the poet Lumbergh both enthuse I will not attempt your fame Oh Rembrandt with I tend to scroll for the esteem you receive in every Hall is known when I merely mention your name now this is not to say that there are no signs of trouble particularly concerning his relations with patrons the monumental and stylists 1639 portrait of Andres Haas also in the exhibition is a representation of a powerful Amsterdam Regent who actually would serve as burgle Master or mayor of the city seven times and who left behind a fortune apparently this portrait was the cause of a dispute between Rembrandt and considered a cross we don't know the reason for the dispute only that it was settled by Rembrandt being awarded a fee of five hundred guilders which was a very significant amount of money for a portrait painting it's been suggested that the house was either dissatisfied with the picture or that there was disagreement over the price a not uncommon problem between Rembrandt and his customers in any event the painting would be Rembrandt's last portrait commissioned from a regent the most powerful and richest class of patrons in 17th century Holland there's also evidence of Rembrandt's declining popularity in his later years in 1679 ten years after Rembrandt's death the German painter Matthias shites acknowledged that a toll although Rembrandt was quote esteemed and greatly respected this has somewhat diminished recently the most spectacular example of Rembrandt's somewhat diminished reputation as shrikes puts it is the rejection of his colossal conspiracy of the battalions under Claudius civilus what you're seeing here today which is actually in Stockholm Museum there though very large at six and a half by ten feet is merely a fragments a quarter of the original size of the canvas he was commissioned to paint the portrait or job rather the painting sorry was ordered by the city magistrates for on Saddam's magnificent new townhall to show you here in photograph that I took there it's currently the royal palace in Amsterdam I became royal palace only in the early 19th century after Napoleon invaded the Dutch Republic and brought an end to this unique state and only at that point is this municipal structure actually transformed into royal palace and it's still belongs to the Dutch royal family you can visit inside and if you're ever in Amsterdam I encourage you to try to visit visitors are allowed in if I was going to say the Queen but it's actually now the King Philip Alexander is not in residence or he's not using it you can visit and it really is it's fascinating structure as we'll see in a moment with some interior shots and here is a contemporary 17th century painting of the structure by Herod bear Qaeda from 1672 to give you a sense of how glorious this building was in the 17th century when it was unveiled as opposed to this dirty facade that I just showed you in the photograph that unfortunately is something that seems we're going to have to live with the facade of the structure we'll never get back to this brilliant white after all those centuries of deposits of muck and pollution but it gives you a sense this painting also of how a splendid the structure was how big it was as well and why there for the Dutch in the period actually could refer to it as the 8th wonder of the world so that's how extraordinary this structure was to them and of course the monumental painting by Lingle Bach of the central square in Amsterdam the dom square also shows you the new town hall under construction over here you see it active right was all kinds of offices that were important to the administration of the city of Amsterdam housed in this structure are the exchange banks of this'll Bank prisons tribunals offices where the burgomasters were meet it's it's not a palace as it seems to suggest by the current title it really was the seat of the functioning Civic government moving inside as I said it's well worth while if you have the opportunity and Amsterdam gives you a sense of the splendor of how no expense was spared by the city magistrates who were probably the richest people in the world at this point in terms of the marble materials that they used in terms of all the sculpted decoration the chandeliers it's really really an impressive central hall that they call the BER course all of the citizens Hall because it was open to the public so you could come and actually admire the splendors of the structure that materialized for the Dutch in the 17th century just how rich and powerful they had become only recently and there are actually maps hemispheres on the floor over here on the western and eastern hemisphere so the Dutch actually had the world at their feet when they walked across this decoration and if you were to walk down one of the corridors and either side of the birthers oh you would come across the corners that surround the citizens hall with a painting such as this a giant lunettes hanging above doorways that would be din to the various administrative offices this is where Rembrandt's conspiracy of the Batavian under Claudius civilus or kibble as' was originally displayed I'm showing you how the space looks today with a painting by an leaves Rembrandt's former colleague of another subject related to this story of the conspiracy the battalions that I'll tell you about in a moment but you can just picture in your minds the colossal canvas that Rembrandt was commissioned to do actually displayed here above those doorways actually was here I think at the facing wall now Rembrandt's painting was recorded as installed as planned in the Town Hall in a guidebook to the city in 1662 so it was here for a short period of time and then we know that it was returned to Rembrandt for unknown revisions originally for unknown reasons originally for revisions he was supposed to make some changes but it never actually returned to the Town Hall and was ultimately replaced by this very disappointing work by the artist georgian orphans which is his version of the scene and is still seen there today now comparison of Rembrandt's fragments again just a quarter of the original size here that's in Stockholm with this drawing by Rembrandt gives us a sense of how the picture was actually altered in fact it was dramatically cut down from a much larger composition this is the central scene of Claudius give Alice I think you pronounced it in Latin so here he is right the central figure and the table that's all that remains of a much broader scene set inside a sacred globe as we know according to the text that he would have used with this monumental staircase so that's how it would appeared and by the way the drawing that Rembrandt made of his original composition is on the back of a funeral ticket that he received that's dated 1661 so this is one of those very very rare gems that we have that help us to date Rembrandt drawings because the drawing can't be from before 1661 we know because of that dates right now Rembrandt depicts the swearing of an oath of allegiance to Claudius civilus the chieftain of the barbarian tribe of the battalions who lived in the area of northern Europe that roughly corresponds to Holland's thus the Dutch identified the battalions as their ancestors so these are the ancestors of the Dutch in the 1st century as the Roman historian Tacitus tells us the Batavian revolted against what they considered the tyranny of Roman rule and event the Dutch considered a validating prototype for their own revolt against Spanish rule which officially ended in 1648 the year that construction of the new Town Hall was begun so symbolically the construction the Town Hall is linked to that official recognition of the Independence of the Dutch Republic from Spanish authority remembrance emphasizes the barbarism and savagery of the Batavian again the barbarians as they clash swords in the nighttime ritual and calls vivid attention to Claudius give Alissa's brutally disfigured face he was blinded in one eye in a battle the distinguished magistrates who commissioned the painting were probably not pleased with this almost savage image of the men they considered their noble ancestors the contrast between Rembrandt's work and another monumental picture the magistrates also commissioned for a different space in the Town Hall slinks martes curious venkata refuses gold for a meal of turnips could not be starter Flinx figures are refined and idealized embodying the civilized and cultured ideals of Amsterdam's political and social elite slink had been Rembrandt's pupil in the 16th but gradually abandoned his master's assertively realistic style dramatic lighting effects and broad handling of pink for a brighter smoother more idealizing and classicizing style that appealed especially to the Regent class and flink was actually originally awarded the commission for this entire cycle in 1659 but he died unexpectedly in 1660 and then the cycle is actually reduced and divided up between Rembrandt and two other artists right so a former pupil a young guy who's abandoned Rembrandt style was the original choice of the magistrates to create the entire cycle in addition to other works like this very successful in books sorry very successful picture that still in the burgomaster chamber in the town hall details of the work reveal how Rembrandt's expressive rough application of Pink's departs from all norms he even works scrapings from the palette to reinforce the core and essentially brutish character of the Batavian and their barbarian customs despite the apparent failure of the Claudius give ellis to please the municipal authorities however Rembrandt continued to receive important lucrative commissions in 1662 for instance took a while to come up sorry he painted the famous syndics an over life-size group portrait of the officials of Amsterdam's Draper's guild who were rich merchants who assess the quality of dyed cloth the Rembrandt remained popular among elite patrons until the end of his life was also confirmed by the very recent discovery of documents recording a commission for two altar pieces for a church in Genoa in 1666 sixty-seven we just found out about these less than 10 years ago so it was a real revelation the patron Francesco Maria Sally first ordered from Rembrandt to oil sketches one of which was to depict the very Catholic strangely in our eyes Catholic subject of the Assumption of the Virgin characteristically Rembrandt delayed delivery by eight months and at one point demanded three thousand guilders more than twice his original asking price of twelve hundred guilders those Sally ultimately paid a little more than a thousand guilders for these models the Miguel II when the paintings were finally finished Rembrandt offered the excuse that he had been quote applying himself with the utmost mental commitment Sally's agents also reported that Rembrandt quote wishes to acquire Fame and honour in our parts adding that quote he wants a lot of money because he maintains that he is someone who has knowledge of the art of painting and therefore stands his ground right so Rembrandt is very clear about his authority and she uses the price of his pictures basically to assert their transcendent value the term that we would use today would be priceless right it's so much money but of course there is a price on the market for everything Rembrandt knows that you set your prices wildly astronomically high you are actually acknowledging and reinforcing the supreme value of your work and the two pictures we know were shipped to Genoa but they've disappeared without a trace so if you find a model somewhere of an assumption of the Virgin and oil sketched somewhere in Italy maybe or God knows where and you're wondering could this be gotcha an assumption of the Virgin looks like Rembrandt buy it right definitely as this and other documents testify even in the reduced circumstances of his post bankruptcy years Rembrandt was never willing to compromise his artistic Authority for the sake of pleasing patrons or for fashion very soon after Rembrandt's death in 1669 however increasingly critical commentaries on his work began to be published the most famous and condemning being the Dutch critic underneath spells appraisal of 1681 while acknowledging that Rembrandt was a great talent and even asking rhetorically quote who has surpassed him in painting Pels calls Rembrandt the quote foremost heretic of the art of painting propels nothing demonstrated more clearly the inadequacies of Rembrandt's art than his depictions of nude women of which the etching nude woman seated on a mound from the early 1630s was his prime example clearly referring to this audaciously lifelike treatment of naked female flesh pail is lamented he chose no Greek Venus as his model but rather a washerwoman or a Treader of PEEP from a barn gets better hold on and call this whim imitation of nature everything else to him was idle ornaments flabby breasts l-shaped hands nay the traces of the lacings of the corsets on the stomach or the garters on the legs must be visible if nature was to get her jus this is his nature which would stand no rules no principle of proportion in the human body to Pels and his generation of classicists Rembrandt despite his great talents had to be condemned for his failure to conform to what tells calls the rules of art as defined by the idealizing conventions of ancient and Renaissance Art Rembrandt's commitment to realist artifice to sometimes aggressively true to life or as the Dutch called it nard hat lace them imagery which of course this displays very clearly was an affront to the younger generation of artists collectors and critics who increasingly espouse classicist aesthetic norms as the basis on which all art and artists must be judged Rembrandt's in their estimation demonstrated an indecorous an ignorant preoccupation with reproducing the imperfections of nature rather than a canon of physical beauty derived from ancient and Renaissance artistic paradigm tells us condemnation of Rembrandt was not particularly original he depended on slightly earlier words of criticism none of which was published in Rembrandt's own lifetime so these post date his life by only a few years but nonetheless he wasn't alive when this begins to be circulated Samuel isn't hoax rotten Rembrandt's pupil in the 1640s made a few disparaging comments about his former master in his theoretical text the introduction to the Academy of painting or the visible world published in 1678 for example sun-ho Stratton complains that Rembrandt posed his models in elegantly and therefore provided deficient instruction for pupils referring to his own studies of male nudes such as this sheet of a scrawny youth which van host Robin appears to have sketched at the same time as Rembrandt through the same model for his print you can see actually the use is the same figure here standing and seated right though from a different angle see we can actually get right into Rembrandt's studio with van host Ron's sheet and there are some others as well by anonymous pupils or followers really not followers I guess right but someone who was there in the studio Rembrandt's when he was sketching these nude figures they're recording a session a drawing session after the live model referring to V sheets or his sheet I'm sorry that we see here then host Robin writes quote when I look through my old Academy drawings I regret that we and our you were given such meager instruction for there's no more work in copying a graceful pose than an unpleasant and disgusting all right so this he looks back on this sheet and says this is disgusting right he also takes Rembrandt to task on the grounds of indecorous and even irreverence pointing to this Cleese eyes when it comes up hello all st. John the Baptist preaching from about 16 34 to 35 pointing to the copulating dog that Rembrandt included now they're very difficult to make out and here so it's very hard to make out in the reproduction but it's also difficult to identify them in the actual painting because this area of the picture has been worn over time but they were obviously more visible and explicit earlier in Rembrandt's day and this is part of Rembrandt's audacious assertion of his art and truth right he represents reality is what he's doing including that very natural occurrence that one might observe out in nature of copulating dogs together with all kinds of other vignettes here that bring the biblical story vividly into the present tense and the present reality of the 17th century I mean you've got where is it over here I need my glasses there are these great little episodes to point out where are we've got a mom telling her child who's crying to be quiet listen right and also you have here figures including those who are wearing Japanese costumes Rembrandt introduces that element which is anachronistic and anomalous in a biblical scene but he is bringing the whole world as it's understood by this point in the 17th century in Holland to bear on the rendering of a biblical event and of course you've probably heard that the Dutch East India Company had a monopoly exclusive rights to trade with Japan in the 17th century and all the way through up until the opening of Japan in the 19th century van't hoff cotton was also the first to record that some people voiced criticism of the night wash Rembrandt's innovative group portrait of the militia company of Captain Franz Bunning Kaka and his lieutenant villains on the Rosen Berg and Hawkes rotten right in the opinion of many he made the large picture too much a work executed according to his own wishes than one of individual porch portraits which he was commissioned to do so when host cotton presumably referred her to Rembrandt's extraordinary dramatization of this group portrait of militiamen to show them actually in the midst of marching out to participate in parade most likely and I was also Rembrandt's inclusion of many additional figures at least ten additional figures many of which are life-size than those he was commissioned to actually create so you probably heard about this before one of those sort of extras that he introduces in order to convey the impression of a crowd scene is clearly going to be this guy over here you can hardly imagine him paying to have himself represented in this portrait with an arm right over his face right so this is very clear that Rembrandt is doing he's not paid to write he's using this portrait commissioned one of the few sort of institutional commissions that he will have for public display of artworks in Holland as a way of vehicle really for asserting his mastery of dramatic narrative scenes even with a group portrait and another figure introduced here who doesn't belong in a way is Rembrandt himself and this little partial self-portrait identifiable by the brave Rembrandt helped to make that a trademark of the painter he's kind of looking over the shoulders mischievously with one eye over there acknowledging of course that this is his own creative spectacle not merely a posed portrait commissioned by the militiamen himself themselves but van't hoff's Rawdon after citing that some people complained immediately follows this statement by asserting the transcendence of Rembrandt's painting he writes however this work no matter how much it can be censored will survive all its competitors which of course it had when host rotten does add though that quote I should have wished him to use more light but host Rodman's criticisms are relatively minor compared to the intensity of palaces indictment of Rembrandt as quote the first heretic of the art of painting but it's important to recognize that both writers in focusing their critiques on Rembrandt above all others 17th century Dutch artists and remember there are thousands of them right actually confirm Rembrandt's reputation is the towering figure of the Dutch artistic tradition for this younger generation Rembrandt was a force to contend with and increasingly he would become a foil against which they could define their aesthetic project and their larger programme of modernizing Dutch art according to international cosmopolitan standards of classicism gerard de Lorette an artist and art theorist for whom Rembrandt painted this portrait when he was between 25 and 27 years old not Rembrandt laughs extra story similarly declared his admiration for Rembrandt while also chastising Rembrandt for violating classicist rules of art in his highly influential treatise on painting of 1707 which he wrote after becoming blind in 1690 de la raza admitted quote I do not want to deny that I once had a special preference for Rembrandt style but as soon as I began to understand the infallible rules of art I had to acknowledge this aberration and reject his style as something resting on nothing but the disordered flights of fancy which without examples meaning canonical exemplars of art have no solid foundation to support them Dolores's Apollo and Aurora from 1671 from obviously before he went blind exemplifies the class sizing approach to painting he promoted and for which he was dubbed the Dutch person despite his complaints though de la raza conceded that quote in spite of this spite of everything I've just said some asserted and still assert that everything that art and the brush can achieve was possible for Rembrandt and that he was the greatest painter of his time and still is unsurpassed and so he's still got his admirers by 1718 this qualified praise of Rembrandt would be consolidated and disseminated widely with the publication of Arnold Hall Bracken's three-volume great theater of Netherlandish painters the first expensive study of the works and lives of 17th century Dutch painters despite its inaccuracies and shortcomings how Broca's text became the authoritative source on Dutch artists in the 18th and early 19th centuries and therefore will be important for our understanding of Vermeer as well so we'll come back to him how Brocken had been a pupil of San Jose Rembrandt's own former student so he was relatively well-informed hal brocken applauded Rembrandt seemingly inexhaustible creation of facial expressions and attitudes and praised in particular the more finished works of Rembrandt's early years such as the Christ in the storm on the Sea of Galilee from 1633 that also as you probably know was in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and tragically stolen in 1990 it is a work that is hopefully still is certainly was in really magnificent state of preservation I remember it from a few years I was here before it disappeared so it really is a great loss or a tragedy for Boston no doubt how Rock and appreciated Rembrandt's ability to render compellingly the Apostles panic at the sudden storms violence especially in contrast of course to the calmness of the scent of Christ in the center over here he also included this scene of one of the Apostles leaning over the side of the boat to vonage right so this is Rembrandt's a sword assertive realism right nothing from life theoretically is excluded from his purview and he wants to bring home these biblical or mythical subjects of prestigious history paintings to make them part of the vivid presence make them contemporary now Hal Bracken nonetheless disapproved of Rembrandt's late broad murmur which he considered merely unfinished and like Belles and others was dismayed by what he considered Rembrandt's vulgar lowly naturalistic treatment of the female nude which he described as quote the most wonderful subject of the brush Rembrandt's radically true-to-life approach to representation his goal merely to imitate rather than improve upon nature according to how Bracken blinded him to the edifying rules of art Hal Brocken even quotes and praises pulses withering comments about Rembrandt's news telling his readers that Pels disapproval was not motivated by animosity toward Rembrandt's works but by his desire to help students understand what is worthy in art and what therefore is not worthy at the same time that Rembrandt was being criticized in theoretical writings of the 18th and early 19th centuries his artworks continued to be much sought-after in fact the very first catalogue raisonné of any artists works was of Rembrandt's prints back to the hundred gilded prints here which was published in 1751 by jelsa the Parisian art dealer and patron of Votto right so the very first catalogue raisonné we ever have which of course is fundamental to the organization of artists works into the whole apparatus therefore of the market system for sales collecting for our history it begins in the mid 18th century with Rembrandt's prints which are so admired so much sought-after due to the influence of how Bracken's biography Rembrandt's reputation as a rebellious artists under Holden - any rules also spread widely with the rise of romanticism and the cult of the artist as genius in the 19th century the classicists reasons for condemning Rembrandt's were turned on their head artists and critics now champion Rembrandt as the embodiment of the ideal of the artists as free-agent dedicated absolutely to the convictions of his art and an age when artists were actively resisting and ultimately breaking away from academic convention Rembrandt provided a powerful alternate model as the French Romantic painter dellacroix predicted people will one day discover that Rembrandt was as great a painter as Raphael a prediction borne out by the next generation of realist and impressionist painters who avidly embraced Rembrandt as a model for their challenges to the Academy and the official salons the assertively ordinary heroes of coure Bay's dome breakers and the realism and dynamic brushwork of money sorry as in the nymph surprise were inspired in part by Rembrandt and in fact mayonnaise painting is based directly on Rembrandt's susana from 1636 so that's how close I can get it in terms of the inspiration that Rembrandt art provides for 19th century realists and early impressionist artists Rembrandt's coat like status is a nonconformist and the insistent realism of his art also required explicitly political meanings in this period particularly among leftist French critics in the years leading up to an after the Revolution of 1848 the socialist off-center who say explained in 1848 that Rembrandt quote of the people he breezed Liberty only with the people and in 1858 it Gen Joseph till futile a known by the pseudonym villain burger or citizen William after his exile in 18-49 for his participation in the Second Republic asserted that Rembrandt represented the future of art and society whereas Raphael represented the past Raphael Claire Oates looks backwards Rembrandt looks forward Dutch art is the first that gave up all imitation of the past and turned to the new Toure idealized the 17th century Dutch Republic as a democratic state rather than its reality as an oligarchy of rich merchants and interpreted Dutch art as an art for the people locked or Leung as he said and Rembrandt epitomized this ideal the most accessible as well as the most exaggerated version of the 19th century cult of Rembrandt as an unconventional genius whose transcendent deeply human art with misunderstood by his high bound bourgeois clientele is Alexander Cortez 1936 film Rembrandt starring Charles Laughton it's well worth seeing if you haven't already seen it the movie begins with the Night Watch being unveiled to its patrons whose initial shock is followed by laughter and angry accusations and ends with Rembrandt poor and destitute and finding solace in the simple folk whose truth he always sought to capture both the failure of the Night Watch and Rembrandt's destitute isolation in his final years as we've seen though were mixed but ideas about Rembrandt is a non conformist and heroic individualist a painter of truth and humanity ideas which were shaped decisively by both his class assisted critics and his 19th century admirers still have currency today even if they're exaggerated claims have been rightly tempered or put to rest altogether Vermeer's critical fortunes took a different path than Rembrandt's though their reputations would converge in the 19th century's reappraisal of Dutch art as an alternative to the academic classical tradition while Rembrandt as we've seen was always well known even if at times notorious by the 18th century Vermeer was largely forgotten beyond a small group of well-informed collectors in Holland a famous episode in the history of the art market vividly illustrates this situation JP Morgan the financier banker and art collector had never heard of Ramirez name until the day in 1907 when he was shown this painting lady writing and after listening to the dealer sales pitch to his credit he immediately agreed to the astronomical price in those days of $100,000 not much I know compared to now throughout the 18th century and even until late in the 19th century Vermeer's paintings were also regularly Mis attributed to other better known Dutch artists the music lesson today in the Queen's collection was acquired by George the 3rd in 1762 as a France fund mirus the elders and here's the marathas duet just to show you will work by this artist who is also extraordinary and valuable but in the 19th century in the 18th century he was more important than Vermeer and it wasn't until 1876 that the attribution was changed to mere young woman with a water pitcher one of the highlights of the Metropolitan Museum's Dutch galleries was believed to be painted by Gabriel Metsu until it was correctly assigned to Vermeer in 1877 and here's a Metzen also fabulous painter there's one of his works in the exhibition just to show you how close they can be in some ways though of course Vermeer is very distinctive so it's probably not difficult to discriminate between the two but it was in the 18th and 19th centuries in 1742 the elector of Saxony Augustus the third acquired The Dresden woman reading a letter as a Rembrandt and from 1826 to 1860 the painting was actually attributed to Pieter de haut here's the linen cupboard that's in the exhibition only in 1862 was ramier signature and the paintings date of 1656 published and in 1813 the art of painting was also purchased by Cal Thurman as a whole again because it bore a false the hoax signature and it wasn't until 1860 the picture was recognized as a Vermeer and the problem was not that Vermeer's paintings weren't appreciated it was that his name was unfamiliar on the international art market in the 18th century painters such as the Hoch and mezu by contrast were established what we would call brand names on the markets in 1782 the French art dealer the Barone wrote that Vermeer was appreciated in Holland but nowhere else and tried to bolster ramires reputation by characterizing him as quote a very great painter in the fashion of Mexico so unfamiliar was Vermeer's name among prominent collectors that in 1784 another French dealer was unsuccessful in convincing the king louis xvi to purchase Vermeer's astronomer as a rare work of the master this lack of name recognition in the 18th and first half of the 19th century should not blind us to the fact that during his lifetime Vermeer was celebrated artists in 1663 the French nobleman and diplomat Balthazar the local news paid a visit to Vermeer in Delft from nearby the hague accompanied by konstantin hawkins the early champion of Rembrandt as we heard Vermeer didn't have any paintings to show but he directed the monk own use to the home of a baker probably the wealthy collector and Baker Hendrix balcan who showed him a painting of a single figure perhaps the famous woman reading a letter for which he boasted paying an astonishing 600 guilders and the banco news thought that this was just outrageous it was very much an overpriced little single figure painting to add among canoes he valued at at a tenth of that and in 1669 Peter tating van Bourke out to Regent of The Hague traveled twice to Delft once accompanied with halcon's again specifically to visit Vermeer whom he called a celebrated painter shadings and bare couch wrote in his diary that Vermeer quote showed me some examples of his art the most extraordinary and curious aspect of which consists in the perspective perhaps he was referring to the art of painting work which as I mentioned Vermeer kept as a showpiece in his studio rather than surrender to a buyer but Vermeer celebrity was constrained by a number of factors not least of which was his astonishingly small output we call that only about 35 paintings are attributed to him today and that he may have painted only between 45 and 60 works or two to three paintings a year during his entire 22-year career met Suzanne de hoax comparatively large productions by contrast helped to familiarize dealers and collectors with their work moreover as I noted earlier as many as two-thirds of ramires paintings 20 or 21 appear to have entered a single collection in his native Delft probably that of Peter van Robin and Maria de count which was sold in our Sadam in 1696 Delft was also a relatively provincial town don't forget Ramirez posthumous fate as an unknown artist beyond small circles of primarily Dutch collectors and amateurs was sealed by his omission from how Bracken's three-volume biography of Dutch artists published in 1718 221 because how Bracken's text was acknowledged in the 18th and 19th centuries is the most authoritative source of information 17th century Dutch artists and as we've seen contained a lengthy critical assessment of Rembrandt's work there was little chance of Vermeer's reputation spreading beyond the close network of well-informed Dutch collectors among these collectors and amateurs certain pictures like the milkmaid and the view of Delft were always admired as outstanding works of art interest in Vermeer did gradually gain momentum though so unfamiliar was he even among prominent foreign art experts that in 1833 the London dealer John Smith's only included Vermeer in his catalogue of quote the most eminent Dutch and other painters as a pupil or follower of Mexico are of D'Ghor Smith wrote this painter is so little known by reason of the scarcity of his works that it is quite inexplicable how he attained the excellence many of them exhibit three years later Smith would devote an entire volume to Rembrandt which is the first systematic catalogue of the Masters paintings the situation underwent a dramatic change in the mid 19th century largely due to the pirating pioneering work of our friend the leftist art critic Toure known since 1855 by the pseudonym vilem Berger or citizen William again whom we met earlier as a promoter of Rembrandt as the Paragon of modern democratic values during his 20 years of political exile from France Toria travelled extensively in the Netherlands and elsewhere researching the little-known and little documented painter ramirez whom he famously dubbed the sphinx of Delft in 1860 Toure presented Vermeer as his art historical discovery and he published the first catalogue raisonné of Vermeer's paintings in 1866 following the sensation created by the first public display in France of eleven rare Vermeer's in the exposition retrospective alone exhibition from private collectors adjacent to that year's Paris salon to one French critic a fruit a member of man a circle ramier was an epiphany he writes biographers were silent about his name he's known only by a small circle Vermeer evokes no parallels or comparisons only yesterday his name and his many virtues were appreciated by the merest few and it is no exaggeration to say that the salon retrospective has brought him to light parades art historical research was not only instrumental in to the landmark exhibition and the rehabilitation of Vermeer's reputation many of the veneers in the show and many of the most recognizable Vermeer canvases today were either owned by quarry or had been acquired through his activities as an art dealer both lady standing at the virginal and woman with a pearl necklace belong to Tori he acquired for a private collector officer in a laughing girl today in the Frick Collection and convinced another collector that the geographer in Frankfort now would be a sound investment in the prestigious addition to his collection while Tory's attributions of the other paintings in the exhibition have since been rejected he tracked down and purchased the astronomer for French collector and himself owned the concert which Isabella Stewart Gardner would purchase at the auction of Torrez collection after his death in Paris in 1892 Toure also acquired lady seated at the virginal perhaps premieres last painting now in London and although Toure attributed about 70 paintings to Vermeer or double the number accepted today his catalogue includes the core of Vermeer's works despite his efforts to promote Vermeer however torres assessment only received limited accepts acceptance during his lifetime as is evident from prices on the art market for Muir's prices were rising but they remained relatively low during the 1860s compared to the amounts paid for paintings by de haut in 1867 for instance for but lady seated at the virginal for only 2,000 francs two years later the hoax the visit which is in the Metropolitan Museum today was auctioned for an astounding 156 thousand francs right and you'll walk by that de hoard now today in the Met I'm sure so that's the difference a fraction right at the price to tolerate Vermeer represented not only a lost genius of the art world but also an aesthetic and political ideal to which as we've seen he was deeply committed as an enthusiast of the realist school of French painting Toure sought to promote the Dutch tradition of realist artifice what he called our beloved death school which previously had been depreciated by art furious as inferior to idealizing and classicizing standards as a precedent for the politically informed art of contemporary realists like cor bear in torres Eyes Vermeer's work was the purest embodiment of what he believed to be arts primary role the representation and annulment of everyday life and ordinary people the popularity of gentle mountains the masters of times past of 1879 with furs further solidified de chartes reputation as a precursor of 19th century realism and contributed significantly to the misplaced perception that 17th century Dutch painters simply represented the world around them in Frome on Tom's words Dutch painting was and only could be a portrait of Holland its exterior image faithful fact complete and like with no embellishments by the early 20th century Vermeer would be acclaimed as transcending all other Dutch painters for what contemporary critics considered the essential modernity of his work in 1913 the Boston painter and art teacher Philip Hale for example calls Vermeer the greatest painter that ever lived and would have been intimately familiar with the concert in the Gardiner hail found in Vermeer's paintings features he identified as specifically modern such as quote his point-of-view his design color values his edges his way of using the square touch his occasional pointy layin touch in his chapter Vermeer and modern painting he'll proclaimed if ever a man believed in art for art's sake it was he he anticipated the modern idea of the in personality of art the distinctive aesthetic qualities of Vermeer's exquisitely painted canvases therefore resonated powerfully with the emerging modernist discourse of the autonomy of the artworks endowing Vermeer's paintings with a mystique to which i would say we are still subject it was not until 1935 however that Vermeer would at long last be honored with a solo exhibition in rotterdam the catalog opened with a statement next to Rembrandt the figure of Vermeer rises above all other artists of the great age of the 17th century so we've come full circle here that same year the venerable Abraham Brady Asst researcher collector and director of the merits house published his famous catalogue raisonné of Rembrandt's paintings which is still acknowledged as the catalog of Rembrandt's pictures two years later however radius enthusiastically pronounced the supper at Emmaus probably the most famous forgery of all time as an authentic four mirror on Brady's recommendations of boy month ANBU Negin museum in rotterdam purchased the painting in 1938 for more than 500 thousand guilders and it's still there to be seen today at the end of world war two would be revealed that the painting was the work of Han McLaren a mediocre painter frustrated by his lack of recognition and negative reviews by art critics because another of Zen maker ins Vermeer forgeries Christ in the adulteress was sold to Goering in 1942 the Dutch government accused fund maker enough collaboration with the Nazis and for plundering cultural patrimony when he was brought to trial in 1947 though and maker and admitted to the forgery as his defense in order to prove his innocence and convince his judges from a current painted his last for me or forgery Jesus among the doctors in the presence of court-appointed witnesses and reporters as work progressed the charges were dropped while the American Affairs certainly undermined the reputation of connoisseurship in the art historical establishment it also had a salutary effect by inspiring a much more rigorous analysis of Vermeer's paintings the catalogue that a be the freest in 1939 before the revelation of an Maitland for jurors comprised 43 pictures among which were not only been makin supper at Emmaus but also to other modern forgeries of Vermeer the lacemaker and the smiling girl get this bequeathed in 1937 by Andrew Mellon to the National Gallery of Art the pictures are in storage in the museum today in his post-war English edition of the catalogue of 1948 however to freeze purged all these obvious forgeries and imitations reducing the number of accepted canvases to the 35 paintings that form the core pictures still attributed to Vermeer thank you [Applause] I think I need to get rid of these right Michelle time for some questions at the end if you have a question please raise your hand we'll bring the microphone to you and we do ask those of you who are departing now please do so quietly you're mentioned in the Nightwatch the self-portrait of Rembrandt and the person with the arm over his face what is the woman in yellow doing there great question but that's the great enigma and mystery of the Night Watch so I don't know how helpful I'm going to be she seems to have the features of Saskia she's also got tied around her waist a chicken held upside down but it's bites claws and the emblem of the militia company the cloven ears was actually the claw of a bird of prey and in fact that elm bloom was covering their headquarters it was even on the dishes that were used for their banquets so it seems to be an illusion in some sense to the emblem into the company itself and its prestige and its pride but at the same time you know there's no avoiding the fact that that's a very odd way of representing the talent of a bird of prey it's not and sometimes she's normalized and the reference is normalized in our history by identifying her as a settler or maybe a girl who would have helped prepared meals for soldiers of running around all the commotion of the militiamen as they're preparing to march out but you know I'm not so sure that we can just dismiss it as something that Rembrandt intended to merely reinforce the prestige of the actual patrons so it's a really good question I don't have a full answer for you but she does seem to have some kind of kind of allegorical counter roll there because she's also brightly illuminated and moving away in the opposite direction from one from where they're headed so thanks for the question it's not a full account because we don't have really adequate explanation at this point other than if we just say you know nothing's intended other than reinforcing honor and prestige thanks for question got some question was found here when you refer to the different prices of the Hulk and the Boomer you said to premier so for two thousand francs and the Hulk I can't a hundred thousand seven oh yes can you convert that to a nickel is going to ask me that no sorry I didn't research that and you know my field of seven is sentry halt I wish I could but obviously you know we're dealing with an extreme difference in pricing for Vermeer versus the hawk yeah but I I'm sorry I don't have the answer for that as they say that's above my pay grade right and the next question fixes um my question is relates to the paintings of Vermeer being correctly assigned to him once part of it is he did not sign his paintings what about people signing their paintings are not signing their paintings at that time could you say something about that and also who would have been the experts in those days we look to people with academic degrees today and yes a curator who would have been the experts in those days that did the assigning you mean in the 17th century self yeah okay it's great question well not all artists signs their pictures though many of course did and Rembrandt especially and there are a few pictures by Vermeer that he did sign and those are identified as reliable signatures but it wasn't an absolutely universal practice as you would expect today right so that leaves us with the requirement that we you know make informed judgments right based on everything that we can do to study and prepare and compare in terms of works by other figures and the 17th century did the same when they were needing to authenticate a work and in those days very often because there wasn't obviously in our historical establishment no our historians and relatively few dealers artists would be called in to make their assessments and Vermeer would be called to the Hague at some point to pronounce his assessment on Italian paintings that were returned to a dealer because they were considered to be copies and trash basically Rembrandt is asked I think to do that as well so very often these painters are called upon Velasquez's as well as paintings arriving at the palace in Madrid that his King Philip the fourth has purchased from Italy and Velasquez has to make the call is this actually a Raphael and very often even Velasquez turned out to be wrong in retrospect identifying a copy a good famous copy an original Raphael that we know exists the question question is here in the back thank you for the lecture are you suggesting progression now that Vermeer did not seek to commercialize himself the way did Rembrandt it and did not see Commission yeah well put I think right that's a good way of characterizing four mirrors are he resists commercialization in many many ways and Rembrandt probably does on a certain level but he's much more enthusiastic about embracing any opportunity available to him to market and promote his work and his stature as an artist Vermeer seems to set himself apart for the workings of the art market from the vicissitudes of having to paint for the open market or even for painting on command in the same way that he seems to actually disassociate himself from his middle-class origins and through his marriage and the kind of lifestyle that he's able to cultivate for himself as a famous painter with support of individual collectors and also taking on the kind of what would we say that the heirs of the elite upper-class to which he enters by his marriage to a daughter of a patrician woman a Catholic patrician one but nonetheless wealthy so yes there is that I think in his mind very much and that gives us a sense of how he could actually focus on the creation of these very complicated very self-conscious pictures the total of which may have been watch of 60 yep thank you all for joining us this fall we're out of time today thank you thank you [Applause]

Channel: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Views: 26,444

Rating: 4.8014183 out of 5

Keywords: dutch art, rembrandt, vermeer, european art, dutch golden age, art history, lecture, course

Id: MYFtyGD3Z8U

Length: 82min 18sec (4938 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 03 2017