Day 393 - Rembrandt

 



January 2, 2025

I've peered several times into gallery 616, where "Aristotle Contemplating the Bust of Homer" occupies pride of place. In truth, I thought the gallery was numbered 615 and would be a good place to finish up 2024. But I'm equally happy to start the new year with Rembrandt.  The gallery is home to 11 of his paintings, along with a terrific Frans Hals portrait and works by Nicolas Maes and Govert Flinck, Rembrandt's students. I was tempted to write about one of these paintings but in the end felt that it was only right to dedicate this entry to the master himself.

Rembrandt painted "The Standard Bearer,"  as the work is popularly known, in 1654, when the artist was 48 and, it strikes me, in complete control of his craft.  His subject has been identified as Floris Soop, who belonged to one of Amsterdam's civic guard companies - hence his get-up- and also was an aesthete and bachelor (read: gay) with  a large collection of paintings.  On a large canvas (perhaps 60 inches high and 48 inches wide), Rembrandt depicted Soop in three-quarters length, set against a dark background partially covered by a maroon curtain.  Rembrandt's brushwork is truly bravura, at least to me. Some of the strokes are rough and suggestive: the sitter's gloves,  his hat and coat, and the left side of his shadowed face are all indicated by a few strokes.  On the other hand, the plumes of his hat and his gilded sword belt are defined with breath-taking precision. I marvel at the way that a thin white line of paint conveys the luster of the staff Soop holds, and the way that two or three small dots of gold paint on each of the many buttons on the front and sleeve of Soop's coat make those buttons gleam.   


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