REMBRANDT. "SYNDICS OF THE DRAPERS' GUILD".   Term Paper ID:23813 Click to get this paper

Essay Subject: Analyzes 1662 group portrait's subjects, pose, composition, setting, lighting.... More...

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Paper Abstract: Analyzes 1662 group portrait's subjects, pose, composition, setting, lighting. Paper Introduction: Rembrandt's painting The Syndics of the Drapers' Guild (also known as The Sampling Officials of the Drapers' Guild) was painted in 1662. This very large painting (75 1/4" x 109 3/4") hangs at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam and is considered one of the great works of Rembrandt's later career. The Syndics is an example of a particular type of group portrait, the board of directors, and is one of the outstanding works of this type. In this portrait, as in many others, Rembrandt conformed to the rules for the genre but his approach was completely individual and his work stands out from all the others of the same type. Aside from being a beautiful, dynamic version of what could be a very boring subject, the Syndics painting also tells the viewer a great deal about Dutch culture at the time. Portraits were a very popular form of art with the wealthy Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. "The intruder is, ofcourse, the viewer" and this immediate involvement of the viewer in thepicture is one of the main reasons it has so much life in it (Witt et al.136). That is why, for Rembrandt, thegrouping and arrangement of the men was the greatest problem. Rembrandt's painting The Syndics of the Drapers' Guild (also known asThe Sampling Officials of the Drapers' Guild) was painted in 1662. This was a rotating group of officialswho were selected each Good Friday and served for a year. The third man's face, for example, isexposed to so much of the direct light that it is far more washed out interms of specific details. WORKS CITEDBredius, A. The old idea of making the composition lively by having a servantenter with a message is given a new twist by Rembrandt who places theviewer in the position of the entering servant. New York: Abrams, 1969.Haak, Bob. C. Instead of showing them against a flat or plainwall, Rembrandt chose to show them in a corner and near the projection inthe wall that is made by the fireplace. There were several traditional ways of animating the portraits.Artists sometimes had the members hold or sit near "the attributes of theirspecial functions -- pen and paper for the secretary, a moneybag for thetreasurer" and so on (Haak, Rembrandt 3 9). This isknown from sketches and from extensive X-ray examination of the painting.The man on the left is the only figure who was not moved and repainted.The standing man was completely repainted after having been shown standingerect. The Syndics is an example of a particular type of group portrait,the board of directors, and is one of the outstanding works of this type.In this portrait, as in many others, Rembrandt conformed to the rules forthe genre but his approach was completely individual and his work standsout from all the others of the same type. Imagining the man standing erect makes it clearhow this would separate him from the rest of the group and the other headswould have to be drastically rearranged. The paneling and the layers of woodworkthat form the edge above the men's heads contribute to keeping the picturefrom being dull. He is the closest to the work they are doing and he stillseems a little bit absorbed as if he was waiting for the standing man toanswer him and wondering why he was getting up out of his chair instead.This conversation looks interrupted and the fact that the man is onlyhalfway out of his chair gives the picture an immediate quality, as if itwas a photograph of a single second in time. Since the dateaccompanies Rembrandt's signature, art historians are fairly sure whichgroup of sampling officials this was. The first and mostobvious thing about the painting is that it appears that the men have justbeen interrupted. In addition there is a picture on the wall abovethe treasurer's head which shows a look-out tower with a fire. The Golden Age: Dutch Painters of the Seventeenth Century. Trans. Rev. by Horst Gerson. Heinz Norden. Amsterdam: Reynal, 1968.Haak, Bob. 3d ed. Above the fourth Syndic's head, for example, the steppedshape of the woodwork and the flat wall above it that form the side of thechimney are hit by the light that comes in from the window on the left.This means that the fourth man's head can be thrown into a little moreshadow and look darker than the others (which adds to the variety) becausehe is also pointed out by the lighted wall over his head. The room also has paneling thatgoes part of the way up the wall. The regentssat or stood and were usually grouped around a table covered with a clothof some kind. There is enough liveliness inthe expressions and the position of the men to make it look as though theydid not intend to pose for a portrait but were really hard at work. 1, The Humanities and the Modern World. Rembrandt's choices in the setting were also important in keeping thecomposition very active. Rembrandt: His Life, His Work, His Time. Even his decision to use the dramatic foreshortenedperspective from below was due to the fact that he "took into account theway the picture was to be hung" high, above the viewer's eye level (Gerson125). Witt. Compositionally Rembrandt also used the shape of the group to fightthe tendency of the group portrait to be a series of dull horizontals. The fifth man, on the right,forms a triangle of his own -- from the table-top to the top of his hat(and dimly continued in the woodwork above and behind his head). In painting this portrait for the Drapers' Guild Rembrandt "heldstrictly to the traditional rules" that had been followed for decades(Haak, Rembrandt 3 9). Elizabeth Willems-Treeman. Haak doesnot know whether this was because the men actually wore their hats insideor because they thought it looked more dignified in the portrait -- but thetradition lasted until wigs started to be worn at the end of theseventeenth century (Golden Age 11 ). New York: Abrams, 1984.Witt, Mary Ann Frese, Charlotte Vestal Brown, Roberta Ann Dunbar, Frank Tirro and Ronald G. In Rembrandt's painting there are also all the attributes common tothe Regents portraits. The people shown in the Regents paintings were citizens who wereperforming a civic duty of some kind. Groupportraits were usually of families or one of three official types: civicguards (citizen militias that protected the towns); anatomy lessons, inwhich a doctor performed the public anatomy lesson and was shown surroundedby other members of the Surgeons' Guild; or Regents paintings whichpictured "the governing officials of charitable institutions, guilds, andsimilar organizations" (Haak, Golden Age 1 8). The choice of showing him in astooping position keeps his head in the same range as the others butprevents them from being arranged in a dull line. Thisvery large painting (75 1/4" x 1 9 3/4") hangs at the Rijksmuseum inAmsterdam and is considered one of the great works of Rembrandt's latercareer. Ifthey were all placed in roughly the same pose and simply tried to lookdignified, the picture would be a series of monotonous heads -- no matterhow good the individual portraits were. Trans. Paintings of this thirdtype were "exceedingly popular" beginning in the late sixteenth century andwere still common in Amsterdam into the twentieth century (Haak, Golden Age111). This would be dull except that Rembrandtused strong triangles of various sizes to pierce the lines of thehorizontal bands. In addition, thedifferent light that is thrown on each man's face succeeds in making themmore individual. There is,therefore, no sense that he receives less attention than the other figures. The man who rises from his seat seems like he is aboutto greet somebody who has just come into the room. Other methods included showinga servant delivering a message, or a "housemother" and a child could bepresent in paintings of the directors of orphanages Sometimes paintersshowed objects connected with the profession of the men in Guild paintingsand sometimes other symbolic objects, usually paintings on the walls, wereincluded. This is alighthouse or "beacon" for sailors and, "in a more general iconographicsense, a symbol of good citizenship and good government" (Bredius 586).The men, in their hats, sit around a table covered with a Persian rug and aservant is present. A servant stood by, usually on the right side, and theregents usually wore hats while the servant remained hatless. The only one who has not really registered the fact that someonehas entered the room is the one whose hand gestures, palm up, to the bookin front of him. Heshows the table and the row of men with nearly identical clothes andcollars and hats and there is a clear sense of a composition made up ofthree strong horizontal bands: from the bottom edge of the picture to thetable-top; from the table-top to just below the wooden ledge; and from theledge to the top of the painting. The man on the viewer's right, for example, is the treasurerand holds the money bag. This extensiverepainting of the picture shows Rembrandt's "tireless search for perfectionand his refusal to accept anything less" (Haak, Rembrandt 31 ). Obviously, keeping the portrait from becoming static wasRembrandt's major concern. They alsohave some specific attributes of their particular jobs on this board ofdirectors. His raised thumb and open palm call attention to thebook. The Humanities: Cultural Roots and Continuities, Vol. London: Phaidon, 1969.Gerson, Horst. The arrangement of the men around the table was a major problem. The book the men hold open on the table is a"sample book" that contains the standard examples for comparison with "thecloth that this body has to check" (Bredius 586). Portraits were a very popular form of art with the wealthy Dutchcitizens of the seventeenth century. The only man who is not looking at the viewer is still so involvedin the work that the viewer is curious to know what it is they are doing. But thefairly strong triangle of his body is also continued downward by the rugwhich moves down and out to the right, its edge lined up with the fifthman's white cuff. The great problem of suchcompositions, of course, was that they tended to become very static --especially considering that the men dressed almost identically. The problem of creating a portrait of a group of men that followedthe standard style and yet was also an interesting painting for the viewerswas solved by Rembrandt in several different ways. But the third man also forms part of the even stronger trianglethat picks up the right side of the rug triangle and culminates in the faceof the man who is rising from his chair. The five men in hats and the servantwho stands behind them are known by name, religion, and profession. Thefact that the men are of four different religions -- two Roman Catholicsand three Protestants (Calvinist, Mennonite, and Remonstrant) -- but aregathered in "brotherly unity" for their work is "a typical symbol of thepower of commerce and the tolerance of Amsterdam during the age ofprosperity of the Dutch Republic," a time when few other countries showedsuch tolerance to various religions (Bredius 585). Elizabeth Willems-Treeman. In the very front and center of the picture is thetriangle formed by rug hanging over the corner of the table. Paintings of individuals or coupleswere very common and group portraits of several kinds were popular. Trans. Heath, 1993. In Rembrandt's time group portraits were painted "according to fixedschemes that hardly changed throughout the century" (Haak, Golden Age 99).In the early 16 s the formula for Regents' portraits "that would serve forseveral centuries" was first devised (Haak, Golden Age 11 ). This painting was to be hung in their headquartersin "a large complex of buildings on the Groenburgwal devoted to the textileindustry" (Haak, Rembrandt 3 8). Rembrandt Paintings. This painting meets all the standards for a Regentsportrait. Rembrandt also compensates for the added shadows on this fourth man's faceby making the details much sharper. Yet Rembrandt's version of this type of painting is differentfrom all the others. The hands of the second and third men grasp books and are alsodirected toward the center. Only the hand of the third man, however, makesany real gesture. As Haak says, other paintings feature the samesubjects, in the same general arrangement, and in some of them "theportraits are painted to perfection, each face with its own highlyindividualized features and expressions," yet it is only in Rembrandt'swork that "one cannot look at them without wondering about their thoughts,their characters, their backgrounds" (Rembrandt 3 9). Aside from being a beautiful,dynamic version of what could be a very boring subject, the Syndicspainting also tells the viewer a great deal about Dutch culture at thetime. By making all the menfocus on one point, Rembrandt was able to give them an expression ofinterest. Thus there is a balance between a well-lit facewith few details and a shadowed face with sharp details. This is a symbol oftheir profession and is an important focus of the composition. Finally, the hands of the men serve as a very important series ofpunctuation marks running in a row, just below the center of the picture.The hands of the first and fifth men point inward toward the rest of thegroup. These triangles of various sizes are layered over eachother and the tension between them and the strong horizontal lines of thepicture emphasizes depth and keeps the viewer involved in looking from faceto face. Lexington, MA: D. This is thetriangle nearest to the viewer and it is topped by a larger triangle almostimmediately above that consists of the two men with the book and theservant. The good citizens in Rembrandt's Syndics painting were members of aBoard whose job it was to inspect (or sample) the quality of the cloth thatwas made in Amsterdam. The Complete Edition of the Paintings of Rembrandt. The third man was repainted three times and the right hand side ofthe canvas, including the fifth Syndic, was repainted so many times thatthe X-rays just show dozens of overlapping changes that cannot beunderstood. If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again: Search for: or Click here to request an essay written just for you.