{ Rembrandt in Amsterdam} ~ via Ottawa and Frankfurt

Rembrandt in Ottawa for the first time!

Of course, Verena and I had to witness that.
The exhibition is a joint exhibit between the National Gallery of Canada and the Städel Museum in Frankfurt am Main, so it was 'home turf' for both of us.
The exhibition did a thorough job of 'contextualizing' Rembrandt and the so-called 'Golden Age' of Dutch painting in the 17th century and in so doing, brought modern-day relevance to the rather baroque figures that meet the gallery-goer's gaze.

17th Century Holland was arguably the most 'modern' of nations by our standards: a nation governed by 'stadtholders' (governors) instead of princes and kings with an economy founded upon a burgeoning middle- class intent on competition, consumption and sometimes ostentatious displays of wealth.  The perfect place for an ambitious young painter like Rembrandt to ply his services.   Amsterdam was at the epicenter of it all and the exhibit is the visual manifestation of these 'new princes of commerce' with Rembrandt their hired hand who ensures that 'greed never looked so good' to paraphrase Gordon Gekko.

Each painting is in fact a time capsule artifact from this era; a sum of various telling parts and "Rembrandt in Amsterdam" provides many telling details which help reveal a staggering whole.   For instance, the viewer is suddenly confronted by the introduction of 'carmine' onto the canvas.  Carmine was a colour that swept Holland and Europe, and was manufactured from cochineal and tin producing a dazzling effect.  Cochineal was an insect found in the New World where the Dutch had established many colonies and transported back to Amsterdam and onto the palette of Rembrandt and his colleagues.  Of course, it was a rarity, and as such, highly sought by the captains of industry in their commissioned works.  Rembrandt and company dutifully complied.  All those talismanic paintings courtesy of a humble insect?   It's little nuggets of information like this that make the exhibit fascinating. 

Of course,  'New World' and 'Golden Age' are terms from a bygone era that might have been glazed over in the past but can't withstand the more critical gaze of the modern age and this exhibition forces the viewer to examine the  fact that 17th Century Holland ( and indeed much of Europe) was sustained by colonization and slavery.  Literally, a plaque forces ( admonishes might be more appropriate?)  the viewer to marvel at these paintings but always remember they literally were the product of misery, indenture and murder. 

Properly admonished, it's back to Rembrandt.  If there is any salvation from the darkness produced by the Middle Passage, then Rembrandt may provide some small light.  The story of Rembrandt is very much similar to the story of the Prodigal Son, a subject he himself painted so deftly: The young Rembrandt is the rage of Amsterdam and he knows it;  the exhibition shows him and his wife Saskia decked in ostentatious clothes with a gaze that can only be characterized as triumphant or haughty ( take your pick); but the art market, then as now, is notoriously fickle and Rembrandt's 'dark' and 'rough' handling of painting gives way to a more 'polished' and 'bright' style which Rembrandt is reluctant to adopt; he quickly becomes 'old news' to the 'new money' captains of industry; his spending habits however remain as they were buying up lavish fabrics, artifacts, and prints; he ends up bankrupt.  All of this Rembrandt captures with unflinching honesty.   

Immortal triumphant youth never made for great story; nor art.  Falling out of favour as the portraitist to the moneyed class forced Rembrandt to return to history painting and etching and the humanity that he reveals in these pieces far exceeds the endless parade of shiny- skinned, rosy-cheeked 'masters of the universe' decked out in pearls and gold served up by his contemporaries.  Rembrandt shows Samson, the original 'superhero', at his weakest, literally laid low with a twisted dagger plunged in his eye socket;  the psychological ambivalence between King Saul and David who soothes the tortured King by playing the harp; the exhibit shows Rembrandt stacked against the 'flavours of the month' which overcame him  and we see why Art history wisely looked to Rembrandt posthumously as the greater artist.  Whether it is ancient kings, humble servants, or in his later self-portraits, Rembrandt's cast of characters are 'human, all too human' by revealing an inner world of ambiguity and complexity while giving ordinary humans a dignity and majesty no matter what their fate. 

There's one last act in "Rembrandt in Amsterdam" which centuries later is guaranteed to conflate the centuries between artist and viewer.  Amsterdam metes out a cruel fate for Rembrandt. Amsterdam may have been good for his artistic business initially, but being a port city, it is home to less welcome visitations, namely, disease: Rembrandt's  first wife Saskia is taken by tuberculosis at the age of 29;  and his second, Hendrickje dies of the plague;  the same devastating disease that claimed his only surviving son Titus two years before Rembrandt himself sheds this mortal coil.  As one journeys from room to room and absorbs this decline in fortune from behind a mask, a natural empathy takes hold which gives this exhibit a special poignancy. 

 https://www.gallery.ca/whats-on/exhibitions-and-galleries/rembrandt-in-amsterdam-creativity-and-competition?utm_source=Facebook-Ads&utm_medium=Facebook_Mobile_Feed&utm_campaign=Rembrandt-Ottawa-13-07-2021&utm_content=Video-EN&fbclid=IwAR3WpsyYViBmRUcURBYVFcCGTWOxp2zoo_tfzjjg7RBmjX8pIWhZQ6btiEY