Rembrandt's Eyes

Rating:
Summary: More than an art history title
Review: "Rembrandt's Eyes" contains such evocative detail and historical sweep as to suggest an excellent script for a possible movie of the Dutch Master. Simon Schama doesn't just describe a painting or a scene from 17th century Holland, he puts your senses in high gear with a cornucopia of images, insights and appreciation for Rembrandt and the world he lived in.

This book is not a volume of color plates with tersely rendered explanations. It's a dense and textured treatment of one of the pinnacles of the Rennaissance: Rembrandt van Rijn. But how, exactly, did he get to be so universally famous? Schama pieces together the artist's earliest influence - the mega-star Rubens - and the effects of the Calvinist/Catholic conflicts on Dutch society. You will never look at the strangely mournful, pensive face of Rembrandt in the same way after reading "Rembrandt's Eyes".

The book itself is excellently created, with over 700 pages of glossy paper drenched in intelligently set text. The illustrations, while too small in some cases, are well placed to support Schama's descriptions, and the book has a heft that more than justifies the price. This is a book to read with relish.

Rating:
Summary: luminescent portrait of the artist and the age
Review: 1629 -- the 60th year of the war for the Netherland. 128 thousand 777 men are under arms for the Dutch Republic .Prince Huygens, Rembrandt's benefactor, deciphers intercepted dispatches in the Prince of Orange's headquarters at Hertogenbosch. In Calvinist controlled Leiden 25 year old Rembrandt takes to portraying himself in armour. By 1631, when Rembrandt relocates to Amsterdam, the city's competing churches have come to a grudging accomodation. Despite the fractious political climate the city is a hot bed of manufacture and trade with the Orient. The savour of spices and silks, the rhythms of urban industries-- cloth fabrication., paper making, gem cutting, weapons forging, chimes through its neighborhoods. The artist thrives for a time in the vibrant economic climate. His pictures of prosperous burghers (and of course, himself) and religious scenes ingrain an exotic, cross cultural vocabulary and intrigue.

Schama's analysis of the paintings is as scholarly as his depiction of the historical forces which were shaping them, in a Europe ripped by religious war. He looks also into the unsettled ambition embedded in Rembrandt's artistry. No major artist of his time or since has painted so many self portraits, in so many guises. No other artist absorbed more of the texture of his time and place. His influences were political, theological, social as well as aesthetic and developed into an idiosyncratic genius. Rembrandt's eyes as the author notes, provide a lens into these turbulent times and the passions of the artist. Twenty years from conception to print, Schama's opus spans its subject with a detail as fine as the lace on one of the artist's collar pieces.

The author contrasts Jean Paul Rubens's ethereal idealism to Rembrandt's earthy colloquialism as metaphor for the political divisions of the times. Rembrandt was treading new ground in art. The compassionate consideration of human dilemmas and blemishes was a rebellion against the politicization of art in a time when painting was dogmatic and polemical. Rembrandt's tactile accouterments, lustrous colours, give an eidetic quality to metal, fabric or paper. The works had plural focal points producing a visual dynamic. The creamy pallor of irradiated faces are juxtaposed against some intricately detailed artifact-- lace, gemstone, coral, armour-- and those against props providing subtle sub-texts. They are bathed in an illogical light which seems to emanate rather than reflect from its characters. A narrative and cosmopolitan bustle energizes his artwork.

'The Repentant Judas', is one the best studies of the artist's ability to synthesize surreal contexts and intensely expressive figures into a cohesive spirituality. Schama spends 12 written pages on that magical evocation of purposeful community 'The Night Watch'. 'Two Old Men Disputing' shows Rembrandt's preoccupation with representing age and decay in dignified elegance. He had, though, had no talent for business or orderly finances. He was a compulsive accumulator and a mark for bad investments. That would eventually impoverish him even as his fame became well established. This was not lost in his later portraits, more abstract and rendered with a pensive, sombre defiance. The stern expressions of the 'The Sampling Officials' could well be the those of his creditors. Some transcendence reasserted itself in his final works, most remarkably in vital mysteries of 'The Jewish Bride' and 'Simeon and the Christ Child'

Schama writes objective prose, with an impressive command of his subject. This is no esoteric meditation. It is a exhaustive study of the development of a craft and of the society that spawned it. The book is a beautifully composited coffee table book with a distinctive literary and historical flavour. Schama has produced one of the great artist biographies of all time, and a depiction of an age, as any age is most clearly represented by its art.

Rating:
Summary: luminescent portrait of the artist and the age
Review: 1629 -- the 60th year of the war for the Netherland. 128 thousand 777 men are under arms for the Dutch Republic .Prince Huygens, Rembrandt's benefactor, deciphers intercepted dispatches in the Prince of Orange's headquarters at Hertogenbosch. In Calvinist controlled Leiden 25 year old Rembrandt takes to portraying himself in armour. By 1631, when Rembrandt relocates to Amsterdam, the city's competing churches have come to a grudging accomodation. Despite the fractious political climate the city is a hot bed of manufacture and trade with the Orient. The savour of spices and silks, the rhythms of urban industries-- cloth fabrication., paper making, gem cutting, weapons forging, chimes through its neighborhoods. The artist thrives for a time in the vibrant economic climate. His pictures of prosperous burghers (and of course, himself) and religious scenes ingrain an exotic, cross cultural vocabulary and intrigue.

Schama's analysis of the paintings is as scholarly as his depiction of the historical forces which were shaping them, in a Europe ripped by religious war. He looks also into the unsettled ambition embedded in Rembrandt's artistry. No major artist of his time or since has painted so many self portraits, in so many guises. No other artist absorbed more of the texture of his time and place. His influences were political, theological, social as well as aesthetic and developed into an idiosyncratic genius. Rembrandt's eyes as the author notes, provide a lens into these turbulent times and the passions of the artist. Twenty years from conception to print, Schama's opus spans its subject with a detail as fine as the lace on one of the artist's collar pieces.

The author contrasts Jean Paul Rubens's ethereal idealism to Rembrandt's earthy colloquialism as metaphor for the political divisions of the times. Rembrandt was treading new ground in art. The compassionate consideration of human dilemmas and blemishes was a rebellion against the politicization of art in a time when painting was dogmatic and polemical. Rembrandt's tactile accouterments, lustrous colours, give an eidetic quality to metal, fabric or paper. The works had plural focal points producing a visual dynamic. The creamy pallor of irradiated faces are juxtaposed against some intricately detailed artifact-- lace, gemstone, coral, armour-- and those against props providing subtle sub-texts. They are bathed in an illogical light which seems to emanate rather than reflect from its characters. A narrative and cosmopolitan bustle energizes his artwork.

'The Repentant Judas', is one the best studies of the artist's ability to synthesize surreal contexts and intensely expressive figures into a cohesive spirituality. Schama spends 12 written pages on that magical evocation of purposeful community 'The Night Watch'. 'Two Old Men Disputing' shows Rembrandt's preoccupation with representing age and decay in dignified elegance. He had, though, had no talent for business or orderly finances. He was a compulsive accumulator and a mark for bad investments. That would eventually impoverish him even as his fame became well established. This was not lost in his later portraits, more abstract and rendered with a pensive, sombre defiance. The stern expressions of the 'The Sampling Officials' could well be the those of his creditors. Some transcendence reasserted itself in his final works, most remarkably in vital mysteries of 'The Jewish Bride' and 'Simeon and the Christ Child'

Schama writes objective prose, with an impressive command of his subject. This is no esoteric meditation. It is a exhaustive study of the development of a craft and of the society that spawned it. The book is a beautifully composited coffee table book with a distinctive literary and historical flavour. Schama has produced one of the great artist biographies of all time, and a depiction of an age, as any age is most clearly represented by its art.

Rating:
Summary: An Artistic Duel of the Highest Order
Review: As usual Schama writes brilliantly on a great subject and a great painter.His prose is lucid,beautifully composed and highly enjoyable. He certainly succeeds in bringing the master of Rijn to life and there is great analysis of the paintings-and there are some simply stunning portraits-like the one of his wife 'Saskia in a Red Hat'-I really can't get over how beautiful this painting is.In addition we also get an equally vivid portrait of Peter Paul Rubens and the cornerstone of the book is Rembrandt's continuous dialogue and competition with his artistic adversary-Rubens all colour and surface finish-Rembrandt the master of dark, monumental browns and blacks,effortlessly bringing his subjects to life.Rembrandt emerges as the better painter but I did find this duel absolutely gripping-in particular be prepared to be moved as I was by Rembrandt's incredible reponse to Rubens's 'The Supper at Emmaus'-never has such apparent sparsity in a canvas said so much. I wouldn't hesitate over this book-my only little niggle is that sometimes Schama's immense knowledge of Dutch culture sometimes clutters the narrative-but this is a very minor point-his analysis of the paintings is simply magnificent.

Rating:
Summary: Exhausting but well worth it
Review: I can't help comparing this work with John Richardson's multi-volume "Life of Picasso" series. Rembrandt's Eyes will surely appeal to anyone hooked on Richardson's half finished series. Richardson's "Lifes" seem to slip right along with the reader going for the ride. Schama on the other hand, demands a lot of the reader. Picasso is contemporary enough that Richardson could give us some realistic glimpses into Picasso's social life and recreates the mood at his Tertulia's. Schama does not recreate social scene so that you felt that you were there as Richardson has done with Picasso.

Schama is a glutton for detail. We not only learn of Rembrandt's teacher-mentor with whom he apprenticed, we learn about the teacher's teacher, and then the teacher's brothers. I often found myself wondering what all of this has to do with the subject at hand. Sometimes Schama's digressions and fascination for detail appears to be intellectual showing off. Schama is also fond of dropping off names of items of 17th Century Dutch life as if everyone knew what they were.

The reader should be forewarned that the title 'Rembrandt's Eyes' might lead one to think that this book is about Rembrandt. It is not only about Rembrandt, but also about Peter Paul Rubens, the Calvinist versus Catholic conflicts in Holland and Flanders, and any other article of Dutch and Flemish history that he could remotely tie in.

Schama frequently presents arguments pro and con that are clearly aimed at Rembrandt scholars. Not unusual for a book of this caliber and it does does not impede the casual reader too much. It is interesting to note that Schama was not up till now an art historian but he seems to have slipped on the garb quite nicely.

I found Rembrandt's Eyes exhausting but well worth the effort. Don't expect a tight concise biography of Rembrandt, but rather a romp through 17th Century art history. By the word, page, or picture, a stunning value.

Rating:
Summary: A Magnificent Magic Carpet Ride
Review: I thoroughly enjoyed reading Rembrandt's Eyes. For me, there are certain books which convey me (as if on a magic carpet) to worlds I could not othgerwise experience. The novels of Tolstoy, Dickens, Balzac, and Joyce, for example. For years, I have wondered about the face in the series of self-portraits painted by Rembrandt. Those eyes, especially the eyes. Many have found fault with this book, questioning its reliability as a biography, as a cultural history, as an analysis of one of the world's greatest painters. I am unqualified to address those criticisms. But I can share with others my sense of delight and wonder as I experienced (albeit vicariously) the world which Rembrandt portrayed and in which he lived. Is that portrayal wholly accurate? I have no idea. With exceptional skill, Schama has transported me back in time...through Rembrandt's paintings...to a world, indeed a universe, I could not otherwise visit. During that journey, my soul as well as my mind was nourished...and my eyes now see with even greater wonder and delight the world in which I live.

Rating:
Summary: Tribute To Rembrandt, And A Gift To Readers From The Author
Review: In a time when readers are inundated with books that are brilliant pieces of, "gifted compression", which are as trite as they are brief, and when many books are masquerading as bad screenplays of movies we have already seen. A marvel the likes of, "Rembrandt's Eyes", penned by Mr. Schama arrives as a worthy descendent of Guttenberg's Press.

This book lacks two traits that generally have kept me away from this type of work; it lacks pretense, and affectation. If you love art and history this Author provides both, and together with his eloquent prose he does well by Rembrandt with hundreds of glossy illustrations that are stunning.

The explanations of specific pieces are detailed and as lengthy as they need to be. Any attempt to abbreviate what Rembrandt put in to his works, whether major or minor, would be foolish, futile, and a disservice, both to the Artist and the reader.

A full two-page spread of "The Nightwatch" will take your breath away. This image will do so in part by what the Author relates about the work, the history leading up to it, the people portrayed, Rembrandt's methods, and then you turn the page and find a work that can only be described in superlatives.

The Author has a talent for the theatrical. He brings you along with delightful, readable prose, he educates, and then he pulls aside the curtain to see your reward.

And this is not only Rembrandt, but also Rubens, this is a 17th century book of History. As the word renaissance may be applied to an individual of varied talents, the word equally applies to this effort.

The construction, and quality lavished on the book itself, is rapidly becoming extinct with the books found at the local superstore. Decades from now this volume will still be readable and intact, long after books of lesser construction and content are browning into obscurity.

700 pages sounds like a lengthy read. Drop this book on your foot and you will read the rest with your foot in a cast. But the latter may not be as bad as it sounds as the more time you spend with this work, the more delighted you will be.

I could not recommend this book more highly, simply brilliant!

Rating:
Summary: Wonderfull book
Review: Last sunday, I visited the exhibition of Rembrandt's self-portraits in the Mauritshuis (The Hague, until 9 jan.). Having Schama's book to read and the real paintings to admire, is a great experience. As observed below already, seeing Rembrandt in the artistic, social and political context of his times, this being told by Schama in a captivating and enthusiastic way, is a very pleasant experience indeed. Especially Rembrandt's later portraits are amazing; the observer looks into the eyes of a real person.

Rating:
Summary: Rembrandt Matters
Review: Nobody writes more evocatively or enthusiastically about 17th-century Holland as Simon Schama. His 1987 masterpiece of interpretive social history, The Embarrassment of Riches, brought that age throbbingly to life. Throughout this hefty tome Schama is, as the title suggests, desperately keen to see through Rembrandt's eyes. He achieves, with a verbal abundance and an appreciative delight of textures, the world Rembrandt's paintings so lucidly evoke. The chapter entitled Amsterdam Anatomised which describes the port-city, in probably the most eventful era in the entire history of art, the Dutch Golden Age, is itself worth the price of admission.Rembrandt himself steps on centre-stage only on page 202. Schama devotes the first 200 pages to Peter Paul Reubens the Flemish painter ( this could easily have been an entire book on its own! ) as Schama contends, convincingly, that it is impossible to understand Rembrandt unless we understand his desire to emulate Reubens. Why does Rembrandt matter? To Schama and to us? Because, as Schama affirms, Rembrandt is the greatest painter of the human experience ever to have lived - "Which is why he will always speak across the centuries to those for whom art might be something other than the quest for ideal forms; to the unnumbered legions of damaged humanity who recognise, instinctively and with gratitude, Rembrandt's vision of our fallen race, with all its flaws and infirmities squarely on view, as a proper subject for picturing, and, more important, as worthy of love, of saving grace." Eschewing the arid dogmas of academia that infect and stultify art biographies, Schama celebrates all his emotions and beliefs about Rembrandt in this overlong and memorable book. It should be essential reading for anyone who has ever set eyes upon a work by Rembrandt. Take a bow, Simon Schama.

Rating:
Summary: Artistic insight
Review: One of my favorite paintings is "The Polish Rider" purportedly by Rembrandt. A few years ago , I read a disheartening article in The New Yorker Magazine about a panel of international Rembrandt experts who had decided Rembrandt did not paint "The Polish Rider." Later that same year, I was in Amsterdam and had an opportunity to visit the Six House and the painting of Jan Six by Rembrandt. I had a long conversation with the young art critic who was the curator/guide at the house. He assured me the Rembrant panel was correct in their assumption that "The Polish Rider" had not been painted by Rembrandt. I suggested whether or not Rembrandt painted it, it is a fabulous painting, and I asked this young man if he had ever seen the painting--he had not.

After visiting the Six House, I sat outside on a bench with one of the gardeners and he told me how he felt the day he saw U.S. paratroopers dropping from the sky to save the Netherlands from the Nazis. He said his faith had been restored that day but he would not have belived it if he hadn't seen it with his own eyes.

I hope it doesn't sound too trite to say that reading Schma's book restored my faith in my own opinion. Schama says he believes Rembrandt did indeed paint "The Polish Rider" and thereby places himself at odds with a formidable group of experts. Schama also presents empirical evidence why he beieves these experts are wrong.

But you be the judge. Form your own opinion. Go to New York, visit the painting, and look into the soldier's eyes. I think you will agree who painted this masterpiece. But first, take the time to read Schama's book.