Background

Monday, February 6, 2012

Window To The Soul

Whenever I accompany someone to a museum they inevitably ask the same question, “Why did you stop in front of this particular painting instead of the hundreds of others we’ve walked past?” The answer is simple: I’m looking for a moment when an artist reveals himself.



This picture is a perfect example of what I mean. This wasn’t painted for nobility or a wealthy merchant. Rembrandt was painting a portrait of his son, not something that would have carried much value at the time. He emulated in paint what a novelist would take hundreds of pages to describe. This portrait hangs in the Wallace Collection in London. It is a depiction of Rembrandt’s twelve year old son, Titus, and it contains what is arguably the most revealing passage in all of art.


If you look closely (please enlarge the detail) you will confront the colors of extinction and the grave. This is an eye without a future, not just a revelation of a soul but a portal to nothingness. I could go on at length about the fantastic dexterity that went into creating this detail; the strong brushstrokes and indescribably beautiful juxtaposition of tone and color, but I can’t get beyond the notion that any father would have the honesty to describe such emptiness in his child’s gaze.


How could Rembrandt know that his son would be dead in a handful of years? This painting seems to confirm that he knew, and it’s hard to understand how such knowledge didn’t drive him mad. I tend to think that this painting is Rembrandt’s way of preserving his child. He lavished love on this canvas as if it, not Titus himself, were his flesh and blood, his link to posterity.


Rembrandt didn’t need a crystal ball to see the future. Titus van Rijn would not have a long and happy life. He would marry and die shortly after the birth of his first child. The artist followed his son into the grave less than a year later.


Rembrandt’s painting serves as a gut-wrenching expression of parental agony, a silent shriek of loss and anguish to haunt the centuries. The question shouldn’t be: Why pause in front of this painting? The question should be: How can we ever look away?

19 comments:

  1. You have an amazing "eye" (pardon the pun), and an ability to give insight into the mind of an artist. It's a rare gift. Thanks for sharing it with us.

    S

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'm glad you told me all that because I never would have been able to figure all that out on my own. My reaction would have been more like, "Check out the creepy eye!"

    ReplyDelete
  3. That painting does give one pause, doesn't it? I hope to never see saw despair looking at me through the eyes of my children.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thank you for sharing your observations. Very true!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Very interesting. I would love to be able to accompany you around such a museum!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Aw, how am I supposed to make sarcastic comments after that? Only a Grumpy Bulldog wouldn't be wrenched by the poetry of this post.

    But the painting was the link to posterity, wasn't it? You could find lots of symbolism there: Rembrandt, having created Titus by accident, wanted to re-create him on purpose this time, and chose to express the mortality of his son in painting as an ironic commentary: The son he created by chance was mortal, but didn't show it. The son he created on purpose was immortal, but didn't look it.

    Wait, that wasn't sarcastic at all. Lemme start over.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I can't enlarge this, so don't see what you see. I'm not very good at reading anything into art either. Poetry and art just pass me by.

    Have a terrific day. :)

    ReplyDelete
  8. Excellent, excellent piece. I truly learned from it. Thank you for sharing-

    ReplyDelete
  9. Wow. This is beautiful. I had no idea about the history of Rembrandt's son. You sir are a deep thinker.

    ReplyDelete
  10. The loss of a child is that gut wrenching. Thank you for your observations about this piece.

    ReplyDelete
  11. I see what you mean.

    My favourite place in London is the National Portrait Gallery simply because I can gaze at the faces of everyone I've ever heard of in history and try to "see" more of them.

    SP

    ReplyDelete
  12. I agree with SP above about the National Gallery. There are so many beautiful paintings there.
    I thank you for sharing this about this painting. Now, I must go online to see if I can see the whole painting!

    ReplyDelete
  13. Great observation. Very instructive. I'm with the Broad, it would be great to follow you around a museum.

    ReplyDelete
  14. it's difficult to really know what Rembrant was trying to achieve and how much we are reading into it after the fact - what if Rembrant's son had lived a long and fruitful life - would that effect the way you looked at the picture?

    The fact that he was still alive when it was done would have had a different affect at the time of viewing

    ReplyDelete
  15. Wow, powerful piece. If I had had you as my professor for art history in college, I wouldn't have fallen asleep so much!

    ReplyDelete
  16. Wonderful post - you really have a deep appreciation for the fine arts. And yes, that any parent should look into the eyes of their child and see despair and emptiness is just so tragic, and yet so telling.

    Many thanks for sharing this!

    ReplyDelete
  17. Thanks for sharing your thoughts with us. You see more than the average person, I suspect.

    ReplyDelete
  18. God has given each of us different gifts and talents, hasn't He? I would never have seen all that in this painting, but I marvel that you can and appreciate that you shared it with us.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Insightful observation. okay, I'm game. You write well and I enjoy a good read, Mr. Chatterbox. Need to check out more of your posts. Thanks...Laurel

    ReplyDelete