For Rembrandt van Rijn (1606–1669), the greatest painter, draftsman and printmaker of the Dutch Golden Age, the portrayal of biblical themes was a central preoccupation and one to which the artist introduced challenging innovations. The boldest of these came in mid-career, when Rembrandt introduced a radical shift in the treatment of Jesus, whose image had been based on conventions that had been in place for over a millennium.
The Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Detroit Institute of Arts, and the Musée du Louvre in Paris have organized Rembrandt and the Face of Jesus, an exhibition that examines this remarkable change through some 22 paintings, 17 drawings, and nine prints assembled from public and private collections in Europe and the United States. Included is a series of painted heads of Christ found in Rembrandt’s home and studio, reunited for the first time, and the newly-restored Supper at Emmaus (Musée du Louvre, 1648), a mid-career masterwork which has not been seen in the United States since 1936. The National Gallery in London will also send to the United States for the first time the major painting, Christ and the Woman Taken into Adultery (1644). In addition, many selected drawings that will be coming to Philadelphia have rarely been exhibited or loaned.
Rembrandt and the Face of Jesus opens at the Musée du Louvre (April 20-July 18, 2011), followed by its presentation at the Philadelphia Museum of Art (August 3-October 20, 2011), and the Detroit Institute of Arts (November 20, 2011-February 12, 2012). In Philadelphia, it is organized into three sections that include a prologue; a focus on the series of painted heads of Christ, accompanied by related works; and an epilogue, in which Rembrandt’s new image of Christ continues within his own works and those of his studio and his students. As Rembrandt and the Face of Jesus emphasizes, Rembrandt began at the outset of his career by using the traditional head of Christ, aiming for unprecedented levels of drama, emotion, and realism in his work. By the later 1640s, however, Rembrandt achieved a greater spiritual resonance in his work, evidenced by the Louvre’s Supper at Emmaus, to which the series of portraits are so closely connected. The new model of Jesus, sympathetic, yet piercing, remains throughout Rembrandt’s great late period.
Painted on wood, the series of heads depict a single model representing Jesus. Three of the heads were mentioned in an inventory of Rembrandt’s home and studio (July 1656). These included two paintings, each called Head of Christ by Rembrandt, and a third, Head of Christ, from life, which was found in a bin in the studio awaiting use as a model for a New Testament composition. The seven extant original works created by Rembrandt and his pupils will be reunited for the first time (an eighth is now lost). This exhibition examines the significance of these bust-length portraits, which feature a Jewish model. It explores how the subject figures in Rembrandt’s other works, while also considering issues of attribution in relation to the artist’s collaboration with students and apprentices in his workshop.
“Rembrandt and the Face of Jesus marks the first time that an exhibition including a substantial group of paintings by Rembrandt will be seen in Philadelphia,” says Timothy Rub, the George D. Widener Director and CEO of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. “It provides an opportunity for our visitors to appreciate the loan of exceptionally rare works by the Dutch master, thanks both to our lenders and to our collaboration with esteemed colleagues at the Musée du Louvre and the Detroit Institute of Arts. At the same time, it offers an important reconsideration of the genesis of Philadelphia’s Head of Christ, a subject of fascinating scholarly debate over the years, which can now be seen for the first time in its most illuminating context, thanks to an exceptional team of scholars and conservators.”
The Philadelphia Museum of Art is among the largest art museums in the United States, showcasing more than 2,000 years of exceptional human creativity in masterpieces of painting, sculpture, works on paper, decorative arts and architectural settings from Asia, Europe, Latin America, and the United States. An exciting addition is the newly renovated and expanded Perelman Building, which opened its doors in September 2007 with five new exhibition spaces, a soaring skylit galleria, and a café overlooking a landscaped terrace. The Museum offers a wide variety of enriching activities, including programs for children and families, lectures, concerts and films.
About Rembrandt van Rijn
Born in Leiden in 1606, Rembrandt drew wide acclaim as a major artist during his lifetime, but also suffered much personal loss and near financial ruin. He was predeceased by his wife, Saskia van Uylenburgh, and four children (three of whom did not live past infancy). Later, he was sued by Geertje Dircx, with whom he had a drawn out affair but whom he ultimately had committed to an asylum. Rembrandt was also forced to sell many of his possessions and works of art in a series of auctions in order to avoid bankruptcy. His earliest known painting, Stoning of St. Stephen, was painted in 1625, and three years later Rembrandt took on his first students, teaching more than 50 pupils throughout his career. Between 1640 and 1642, Rembrandt painted one of his most renowned works, The Militia Company of Captain Frans Banning Cocq, commonly known as The Night Watch (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam). In 1631, Rembrandt moved to Amsterdam, where he became a citizen in 1634. The home he acquired in 1639 and was forced to vacate in 1658 is now the Rembrandt House Museum, which contains a collection of etchings, drawings, and copper plates by Rembrandt as well as a small number of paintings by Rembrandt’s teacher, his pupils, and his contemporaries.
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