Has it been 400 years already?
A quadracentennial Rembrandt relapse in three parts
Surely the truth about someone who’s 400 years old depends on which biography you read, but Sylvia Hochfield of ARTnews, who has the always enigmatic job description “editor-at-large”, seems quite certain about Rembrandt in her terrific essay on the quadricentennial of the old boy’s death, which is just coming to a close.
This assurance despite the nasty testimony about him that she surveys en route to judging Rembrandt a fine fellow after all.
Witness for the prosecution #1, artist Abraham Breughel (not the proto-surrealist): Told by a collector for whom he bought paintings that the recently desceased Rembrandt was the ace of half-length portraits, and could he find a new one, please, Breughel pointed out that Rembrandt had been good for nothing other than heavily draped spectres lurking in the shadows, “save for a point of light at the tip of the nose”. See the rest.
