The Frick Collection - Rembrandt, Van Dyck
My personal exploration into the evolution of Renaissance portraiture began in the long hall of the Frick's west gallery. At the eastern end of the hall hangs a self-portrait of Rembrandt Van Rijn circa 1658, one of the numerous self-portraits he painted during his lifetime. The piece's striking beauty is borne from the detailed study of light, and is only rivaled by the undertone of power that it clearly exudes. However, Rembrandt has not merely illustrated his technical prowess in emulating the nature of light, and instilling an emotional feeling in his figure. Rembrandt has composed a portrait that is founded on an aesthetic basis, where the intensity of detail and beauty reach out and grips the viewer. Only after the viewer is initially entranced by the richness of his tones and the movement of his lines, does the true brilliance of the piece comes into greater foci. The aesthetic value takes center-stage until the psychological component of the painting is activated. Rembrandt's domineering attitude is the effect of his kingly full frontal pose, and I begin to imagine the artist seated on his royal throne in front of us, his subjects. His right arm shines pale as it rests on the chair illuminated under the fall
The slight angles of their faces allow Hals to instill this fine illusion of depth. Behind the thin veil of elaborate garments and beautiful shadows is the soft face of a man whose strips of skin hang loosely from his jaw as if they grew too tired to hold themselves in place any longer. The contours of the young woman's dress are similar to the manner in which Holbein configures the dress of Thomas More; however, Ingres' approach to portraiture differs from Holbein's because Ingres' style is much more based on elegance than the realistic rigidity which pierces the face of Thomas More. It is this subtle contradictory nature of the portrait that propelled me into my psychological examination of the piece. The figure in the Portrait of a Young Man by Hans Memling has a stance unlike any of the previously mentioned Renaissance portraiture. The simple titling of both pieces distinctly reinforces the fact that the sitters were neither members of royalty nor distinguished members of the society. This rigid attention to realistic detail becomes less important as artists such as Van Dyck and Rembrandt begin to use their various styles to enhance the power of their pieces, versus the basic nature of a lifelike replication on a canvas. Artists in the Renaissance were progressively becoming more self-aware, and this consciousness drives them to attempt to separate themselves from their counterparts through style. After more than a hundred years of detailed character study, artists had begun to master the ability to duplicate the image of the eyes in portraiture. The precocious detail of the background falls right in line with Van Dyck's complex hanging curtains, which like the mirror rival the figure for the viewer's attention. Goya shrouds the faces of his subjects in the soft and blurred style of Rembrandt, and following Rembrandt further he ornaments their eyes with large black pupils eclipsing the whites of their eyes. Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres' Portrait of the Comtesse d'Haussonville is a mature development of a style which stands very close to that of Anthony Van Dyck. The wrinkles and folds of skin run like thin streams of shadow down the lit planes of his face. As I move onto the portraiture of Frans Hals, I am immediately struck by the unflattering nature of his depictions. The lines of the stubble surrounding his chin are reminiscent of Hans Holbein's Portrait of Thomas More, and the portraits are in chronological succession with one another.
Common topics in this essay:
Van Rijn,
Van Dyck,
Portrait Woman,
Rembrandt Rembrandt,
Whereas Rembrandt,
Rembrandt Hals,
Thomas More's,
Portrait Thomas,
Goya Lucientes,
Van Dyck's,
van dyck,
portrait thomas,
anthony van,
17th century,
anthony van dyck,
rembrandt van,
stark black background,
black background,
hans holbein,
frans hals,
detailed study,
lifelike replication,
tones single color,
rembrandt van rijn,
stubble surrounding chin,
|
Acceptance Essays
