Painting Virtuosity: Rembrandt’s Metals

Abstract

This thesis examines painted depictions of metals by the seventeenth-century Dutch artist Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669). Throughout his painted oeuvre, Rembrandt experimented with painted metals, considering their purpose within the overall effects of his paintings. Rembrandt would adapt painted metals to aid composition or enhance the narrative by emphasising notions of drama or emotion. Furthermore, painted metals were assimilated by Rembrandt to capture an assortment of lighting effects including light, shadow, light transitions and reflections. Rembrandt's painted metals were both traditional and innovative. Deploying the broad pictorial possibilities of metals, Rembrandt used only traditional painting materials and a restricted colour palette which he manipulated to produce a dazzling array of optical effects. Rembrandt experimented with a variety of innovative techniques as seen in his painted metals, such as switching between small, meticulous strokes of paint to crafting thick ridges of impasto. Rembrandt differed from his peers by considering the materiality of the paint itself, often leaving visible brushstrokes and textured passages of paint which would enhance the illusion of a metal surface. This thesis comprises of five chapters. Chapter One considers Rembrandt's treatment of metal in relation to artist treatises of the period. Chapter Two examines the tradition of painted metals as seen in comparison to other artists of the period, including his predecessors and contemporaries across Europe. Chapters Three to Five are categorised thematically, each examining an element of Rembrandt's metals, namely jewellery and dress, armour and weaponry, and domestic items, respectively. Combining prior technical research and my own visual analysis of Rembrandt's metals, I assert the importance of these carefully constructed objects which highlight Rembrandt's virtuosity. There is no scholarly discussion dedicated to Rembrandt's metals or painted metals in general. Consequently, this thesis will advance current scholarship on Rembrandt, revealing new insights into the artist's treatment of metals, painting technique and pictorial considerations, as well as the ambitious and continuous promotion of his virtuosity throughout his oeuvre.