Rembrandt a Religious Painter

“The beauty of the images moves me to contemplation, as a meadow delights the eyes an subtly infuses the soul with the glory of God.” (CCC 1162 found on Art as a form o Christian Meditation http://landru.i-link-2.net/shnyves/Art_in_Meditation.html ) Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn was born on July 15 of the year 1606 in the university city of Leiden. His family was Catholic although his father was the only member of his family who converted from Catholicism to Calvinism in the late 16th century. His parents had 9 children, Rembrandt being the second youngest. “At the age of seven, he was sent to the Leiden Latin School to prepare for the university… as his brothers were sent out to learn a trade. This suggests that at an early age Rembrandt showed a more than average intelligence and that his parents were willing to educate him for a profession, very likely as a city administrator.” (The new Encyclopedia Britannica 1974)

Rembrandt left the Latin School, at 14; he was very well trained in classical literature and a “well-trained Latinist.” Rembrandt then went to Leiden University were he found that his true love was for painting. His parents then removed him from the University and had him sent to

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He then moved to Amsterdam and was paid high commissions to paint portraits. ” (Rembrandt’s Life- His Biography http://www. That “A Christian must have

reverence for all life, even if aspects of it occasionally disgust him. ” For example “The Abduction of Ganymede” and “The Blinding of Samson”

If you look at “The Blinding of Samson you can almost feel the horror and see his pain as Samson is brutally stabbed in his eyes. “Rembrandt became an immediate success in Amsterdam. His parents did this because Rembrandt showed more a liking in drawing and painting historical and biblical scenes and images and there was no painter in Leiden who was proficient in religious subjects. ”

In a small number of Rembrandt’s painting you will find his face in the crowd or his body watching on. ” (Wallace and the Editors of Time-Life Books 1968) Rembrandt’s religious and mythological paintings became popular in the mind 1630s because of their high dramatic expressions and “exciting style. In this same painting you can see a grotesque dog squatting down to relieve himself. ” (The new Encyclopedia Britannica 1974) Rembrandt then married Hendrick van Uylenburgh’s cousin Saskia van Uylenburgh in June 22, 1634. Rembrandt met a man named Hendrick van Uylenburgh an art dealer in Amsterdam. A second daughter also named Cornelia after Rembrandt’s mother, was baptized on July 29, 1640 and hardly survived a

month.

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